


Quirk: Death Note

by Riptidedarkphoenix



Category: Death Note (Anime & Manga), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Abusive Relationships Mentioned, Bullying, Cinnamon Roll Midoriya Izuku, Death Note References, Death Note doesn't really exist, Gore, I might write more of this, I'll just tag both, Is Midoriya a villain or a vigilante, Major character death - Freeform, Midoriya Izuku Has a Quirk, Midoriya Izuku is a Ray of Sunshine, Minor Character Death, Murder, Other, Panic Attacks, Sort Of, Vigilante Midoriya Izuku, Villain Midoriya Izuku, Violence, Violent Death, You don't need to know Death Note to enjoy this, bakugo has a potty mouth, but its not too bad trust me, but not for long, he's not trying to be a villain but it sort of happens, i'm not sure, idk - Freeform, im changing the summary and tags as i go, im so sorry, imagine if the foster care system was actually good, lots of death, minor OCs - Freeform, most of the OCs will die, no beta we die like men, please forgive, underage relationship mentioned (VERY briefly), wow this got dark
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:48:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 47,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24623458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Riptidedarkphoenix/pseuds/Riptidedarkphoenix
Summary: Izuku is five years old when he kills his first hero.In which Izuku's quirk allows him to kill with only a flick of a pen, and a little boy finds himself wondering if even the most despicable of villains can become a hero.
Comments: 123
Kudos: 524





	1. Chapter 1

Izuku is five years old when he kills his first hero.

He’s sitting in front of his mom’s computer, watching a villain fight play out on the screen. He has to stand on his knees on the desk chair to be able to see the screen, but that doesn’t stop him from enjoying the breaking-news story. Izuku is nearly bouncing with pent up excitement as he watches the figure on his screen take on a group of intimidating villains.

There are three villains, the lead bad guy has a mutation quirks that gives him a face only a mother could love-- he’s a horrifying mix of tiger and human, with great bulging muscles, sharp claws, and beady black eyes.

The hero is a relative newcomer to the hero world. Tall with windswept hair, defined features, and a golden cape arcing out behind him, Pro hero Ishida Kichiro cuts the very definition of a heroic profile under the July sun.

The summer heat is the very reason Izuku is watching the news instead of playing outside. Until it gets a bit cooler, he’d rather stay inside where there’s air conditioning. With Kindergarten finally over, he has all the free time in the world to play outside with Kachhan and his friends. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that his mom lets him watch Hero battles on the news on these too hot summer days.

Perched on the edge of the worn desk chair, Izuku mutters to himself as he clicks through different news feeds, looking for the best angle of the battle. His mother checks up on him, bringing some cool snacks to help fight off the heat. Izuku thinks she worries too much. Her only response is to smile and ask him which hero he’s watching today.

“The Lucky Hero” he mumbles excitedly.

The hero in question, Ishida Kichiro, has a reality-manipulation quirk called Lucky Day. The quirk allows the user to change the probability of good (or bad) things happening in their favor, causing good luck for themselves and bad luck for their enemies. It’s an amazingly powerful quirk that has limitless applications. Izuku really wishes that his quirk will be just as awesome someday.

Inko Midoriya smiles tightly at her son’s energetic rant and her eyes dart to the calendar above her desk. Circled in red are the words Izuku’s new quirk doctor appointment.

“I’m sure it will be just as awesome.”

Her cheerful voice doesn’t match the strained look on her face but Izuku doesn’t notice, he’s completely absorbed in the video.

Inko sets down a glass of pink watermelon-flavored juice on a cupholder and leaves the room, returning a moment later with a journal in hand. She sets it down next to the melon juice. It’s a composition notebook, the kind Izuku uses at school to practice writing his characters with.

“You know so much about Pro heroes, Izuku. I thought you might like a place to write down all your thoughts.”

The 5-year old beams at his mother, grabbing a pencil and immediately opening the first page to write in shaky characters _MY HERO ANALYSIS BOOK_. Inko beams back at her smart, beautiful boy before gently patting him on the cheek.

“No matter what your quirk is, you’ll do awesome things.”

Izuku’s grin gets even bigger. "A mother’s intuition,” he says to Inko before she can say the familiar phrase herself.

Izuku knows this is true because his mother's intuition is never wrong. She can even make Kacchan listen to her and her intuition, and Kacchan never listens to anybody, (not even auntie Mitsuki). Izuku turns a page in the journal and carefully writes _Ishida Kichiro_ across the second page. Underneath he writes: _Quirk- Lucky Day, Agency- Endeavor Hero Agency_.

He wonders if he should try drawing a picture of the hero's costume. He’s not very good at art but maybe his mom would help him. Resolving to ask her after the battle, Izuku continues to jot down everything he knows about Kichiro.

_Works for Flame Hero Endeavor (Todoroki Enj-_

He’s almost finished with his sentence when a cry from the computer screen catches his attention. The Lucky hero, who had been confidently rounding up the three villains moments earlier, falters, a hand clutching at his neck. The villains hesitate in their struggling as well, as if sensing something is wrong. With another faltering step, the pro hero sinks to his knees. There’s a moment of silence before Kichiro lets out a strangled gasp and slumps forward.

A chill goes up Izuku’s spine. He’s not sure what’s happening. Whoever is shooting the live video runs towards the hero, calling his name. It sounds a bit like a woman but Izuku isn’t sure. He’s focused on the Lucky hero, who looks very still despite the now shaking camera frame. Izuku thinks he should look away, but his eyes are glued to the screen. The camera woman is trying frantically to wake Kichiro up.

The villains are nowhere to be seen.

Without warning, the laptop computer shuts off as Inko slams it closed, knocking over the glass of melon juice in her haste. Even with the laptop closed, Izuku can still see Kichiro’s face. The lines of his mouth drawn in agony, suddenly going slack, his eyes going from frantic to half lidded, the way he dropped like a puppet with its strings cut-- the image engraves itself into Izuku’s mind.

He suddenly finds it very hard to breathe. Something is wrong.

Something is wrong.

Something is-

Soft arms are being wrapped around Izuku. It’s not until he smells the soft aroma of baking cookies and the hint of his father’s spicy aftershave that always seems to encompass Inko Midoriya that he snaps back to reality, trembling in his mother’s arms.

“I’m so sorry you had to see that, baby.”

“Why, Why didn’t he stop the villains?”

“What?” Inko is clearly taken back by the question.

“The villains got away and he, he... he was just lying there.”

Inko grimaces as she thinks of a way to phrase her response.

“The hero was hurt very badly. I think he was dead, Izuku”

Izuku doesn’t realize that there are tears running down his face until his mother lifts her sleeve to wipe at his wet cheeks.

“oh.”

“I’m so sorry, Izuku.” She apologizes again, lifting the boy into her arms and carrying him out of the room.

On the desk the journal lies open, Ishida Kichiro’s name stained red by the shattered glass of watermelon juice.


	2. 2 : innocence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> HEY HEY HEY! I decided to write more of this fic!

After the Kichiro incident, Inko doesn’t want Izuku to watch hero fights anymore.

“Don’t think about heroes so much.” She chides him.

She says it isn’t appropriate for Izuku to spend all of his time watching people beat each other up, that he should be playing with his friends outside or finding other hobbies. Izuku tries to honor his mom’s wishes at first. He puts the hero fights out of his mind and entertains himself with his action figures or watching cartoons.

Still, Izuku Midoriya can’t go long without thinking about heroes and quirks and villains.

...

It’s a beautiful summer day, perfect for playing with friends when Izuku goes to visit Kacchan’s house. Izuku has known the much louder boy nearly since he was born because his mom and Auntie Mitsuki were good friends growing up. When the two women became pregnant within a year of each other, they decided it was only natural their children would be best friends as well.

Even if his mom hadn't known Auntie Mitsuki and Kacchan already, Izuku likes to think he would still be best friends with Kaachan. He likes his best friend for his ambition and drive. It's practically a fact in his mind (he’s just as sure as Kacchan is) that the blond has the capability to become the number one hero someday.

Unfortunately for Inko’s new rule, the only thing the explosive blond talks about is quirks and heroes. Kacchan’s quirk, Explosion, came in about a year prior, and ever since then Izuku’s friend has been enraptured with the idea of becoming a pro hero. Even though Izuku’s quirk hasn’t come in yet, there is something about the idea of being a pro hero that captures his imagination, not to mention Kacchan's undying enthusiasm for the hero industry.

When Izuku arrives at his friend’s house, he’s greeted by auntie Mitsuki and an energetic Kacchan who pulls the green-haired boy through the entryway and into the roomy living area before plopping down on the floor in front of the television.

“Hero fight is on.” Is the only explanation he gives as he flicks on a fan to circulate cool air throughout the room.

Izuku can never say no to Kacchan. Maybe that's the blond boy's real quirk. Kacchan’s indefatigable determination is too hard to resist and Izuku feels a brief tinge of guilt at ignoring his mom’s commands to stop watching the hero fights as he settles in front of the television. He tells himself that he's only watching the fight because it’s Kacchan’s favorite thing to do… not because he misses the thrill of spectating villain fights on the news.

As the two five-year olds splay out on the floor in front of the blaring TV, Izuku finds himself drawn into Kacchan's orbit like a planet circling the sun. He can't help but observe his best friend. Kacchan is sitting tensely, as if he could jump through the screen and join the fight at any moment, his laser focus not leaving the television for a second. Izuku pushes his book bag behind him to get comfortable and continues to watch the fight play out.

“When your quirk comes in you can be my sidekick.” Kacchan says suddenly.

“Okay, Kacchan!” Izuku shouts, enthused.

From the explosive boy, this is practically a declaration of brotherhood. Izuku doesn’t especially mind being relegated to the position of Kacchan’s sidekick because Kacchan is good at stopping the bullies who pick on the smaller kids. No one ever tries picking on him twice, and when the older kids at the elementary school see Izuku hanging out with Kacchan, they leave the green-haired boy alone as well.

A commercial break comes on and Izuku turns to Kacchan and says, “We should draw pictures of our future hero costumes!”

“Pictures are dumb! I'm gonna make a whole design portfolio!”

“A whole design portfolio, huh?”

Kacchan’s mom enters the room and leans against the wall, an amused smile on her face.

“Maybe you take after me, brat.You want to become a designer someday?”

“Mom! I’m not gonna sit around on my ass all day drawing dumb fashion stuff.”

“Oi! Disrespectful brat!”

Izuku flushes when Kacchan uses foul language but Auntie Mitsuki seems to let it slide. Even though her tone is chastising, there’s a grin on her face. She winks at Izuku.

“This is for my hero costume.” Kacchan continues.

"Well, If you want any help with your 'hero costume’ then let me know.”

”I don’t need ANYONE’S help, old hag!”

Auntie Mitsuki seems to take that as her que to leave, but not before turning to Izuku.

“Izuku, sweetie, you’ll teach this little asshole some manners so he can become a popular hero, right?”

Izuku stutters a response while Kacchan screams in outrage that he doesn’t need Izuku to teach him manners, HIS MANNERS ARE JUST FINE! Mitsuki leaves the room cackling something about how she and Inko used to be exactly the same. The two boys spend the next few minutes drawing and coming up with ideas for costumes and hero names while commercials play in the background.

“KING EXPLOSION DEATH MURDER NINJA!” Kacchan screams, thrusting his “design portfolio” into the air.

Kacchan’s drawing isn’t half bad for a five year old. The proportions are off and the suit color is almost entirely black with concerning amounts of red and orange that Izuku thinks may be either fire or blood. In bold letters at the bottom of the page he’s scribbled Quirk- Explosion.

Izuku beams at his best friend and offers up his own drawing. The sketch isn’t quite as good, Izuku doesn’t draw much, but he’s filled up the spaces with lots of writing about the possible quirks he could have.

“Pyrokinesis… Controlling Temperature… Detonations- eh Zuku? You trying to steal my thing?”

“No, no! No, Kacchan, my mom can pull things towards her and my dad used to be able to breathe fire so that’s just one possibile quirk combination I could get. I’m not trying to steal your thing-”

Izuku doesn’t mention that the idea for a heat-based detonation type quirk may have been a teensy bit inspired by Katsuki, so he actually-kinda-might-be stealing Kacchan's thing. Borrowing it, really.

“You’d better not.” Kacchan scowls and Izuku wants to remind him that he can’t control what his quirk will be any more than Kacchan can control the fact that he sweats nitroglycerin.

Instead he says,

“Okay, Kacchan. Isn’t King Explosion Death Murder Ninja a bit much? ”

“It’s a freaking fantastic name, idiot!”

Izuku just giggles at Kacchan’s over dramatic response as the blond boy jumps to his feet, sparks arcing off of his skin. From somewhere in the house Mitsuki yells,

“NO EXPLOSIONS IN THE HOUSE, BRAT!”

The boys are quieted less by Mitsuki’s yelling and more by the fact that the commercial break is over and the latest hero fight is back on the T.V. screen again.

“Mine is way better. You just copied All Might. ” Kacchan mutters a few minutes after cooling down.

Izuku glances down at the title of his own drawing: Happy Hero- Saving the day with a smile! It is a bit silly, but Izuku couldn’t think of a cool name. He honestly doesn’t care about what he’s called, as long as he can save the day with a cheerful smile on his face like All Might. Izuku’s drawing is reminiscent of the symbol of peace- the suit is drawn with bright reds and blues, accenting muscles and bright yellow bunny-esque hairdo. All Might always brings a smile to Izuku’s face… is it so wrong that Izuku wants to do the same for others when he becomes a hero?

As if thinking these thoughts had summoned the symbol of peace, All Might appears on the television screen and joins the fight.

“Aw yeah, those bad guys are totally screwed!” Kacchan shouts in excitement.

“He’s so awesome…” Izuku mutters, his voice trembling.

Quickly, the green-haired boy pulls the gift from his mother from his backpack and opens up the journal, turning to the already very detailed entry on All Might.

“What’s that?”

“My hero analysis book. My mom got it for me.”

“You write about a lot of heroes in there?”

“Well, just two so far. All Might and…” Izuku trails off.

He hasn’t looked at the first entry since that awful day. He’s been writing about All Might, his favorite hero and current hyper-fixation instead of thinking about the way life bled so slowly from Kichiro’s frightened eyes.

Izuku nervously glances at Kacchan, wondering if the boy will question Izuku’s sudden silence. Katsuki doesn’t seem to care, his eyes are still glued to the television screen. The villain fight is still dragging on, despite Kacchan’s earlier declaration about the heroes being “screwed.”

Now All Might and several other pro heroes have joined the fight. The villain doesn’t seem phased. He seems to have some sort of resistance quirk that lets him take direct hits even from All Might, an impressive feat considering All Might is well known for his brute strength. Who is this guy? 

“Hey, maybe you could write about this villain guy in your journal. He might not be a hero, but he’s got a pretty strong quirk if he can take a hit from All Might.”

“Kacchan, you almost sound like you’re admiring a villain!”

“SHUT UP, ZUKU! HE’S STILL A VILLAIN! He’s just… really strong.”

“Not as strong as All-Might!”

"Well duh! Idiot!"

A fierce look crosses the boy’s face, and his red eyes glint as if he’s seeing more than just the fight on the television screen. “All-Might's the best there is.” 

"I don't recognize the villain though." Izuku says to break the silence that follows Kacchan's heartfelt declaration.

“That’s because he’s Canadian, dummy.”

Now that Katsuki mentions it, Izuku remembers seeing a picture of him before. The Canadian villain was on the run from the international law and had sought refuge with some of his criminal connections in Japan. However the authorities in Canada had caught wind of his escape plan and had enlisted much of Japan’s hero force in an attempt to hunt him down. Apparently they had succeeded in finding him, the trouble now was going to be in catching him.

Izuku doesn’t want to write about villains, but he has to admit the villain’s quirk is impressive. Maybe he can keep a journal of powerful villains in addition to his favorite heroes? Izuku puts down his notebook and rips out a sheet of paper. He writes across the top: _Villain Analysis Notes Entry#1 ._ He begins to fill it up with whatever information he knows about the Canadian villain, name, country of origin, quirk. 

_...He can take almost any hit without damage. Even attacks by All Might have little effect-_ “Look!” Izuku jerks his head up to see what Kacchan is pointing at. The Canadian fugitive, now facing off against an armada of heroes, hesitates a bit too late in dodging an attack. The misstep gives Endeavor, the number two hero, a chance to blast the Canadian in the face with a fireball that leaves the nearly indestructible man stunned.

Capitalizing on the opportunity, All Might immediately decks the villain with a punch that sends the man flying. The villain doesn’t get back up. The new station immediately cuts to a commentator praising All Might for his spectacular victory against the dangerous fugitive. Sensing that the action is over, Kacchan switches the channel, trying to find another villain fight.

Most of the channels seem to be covering the Canadian fugitive, but Kacchan and Izuku still manage to find a couple of smaller channels that cover local news. One news station is featuring two low level heroes, fresh out of one of the many hero academies in Tokyo.The two heroes are collectively called Gemini. From the similarity of their faces Izuku figures they are brothers, twins even. They seem to have some sort of agility quirk that’s inter connected between them. In order for one brother to activate his speed quirk, the other brother has to be nearby, activating his flexibility quirk. When the brothers are touching they can use both quirks.

The news station included footage from Gemini’s most recent exploit, but Kacchan thinks it’s underwhelming. Izuku has to agree that the fight isn’t really much of a fight.

The camera angle is shaky and bouncing around, not getting any good shots due to the fact that the camera man probably has to sprint to keep up with the high speed chase and the acrobatic heroes. Kacchan stays on the Gemini feature just long enough for Izuku to add the twin’s quirks, real names, and hero agency in his notebook. The way their quirk depends on the other is interesting- he’ll look them up later.

The two boys flip through channels like that for a while, Kacchan changing to different hero related stories and Izuku writing down the heroes and their quirks. Fortunately for the boys, several new stations are running old interviews and hero fights and Izuku proudly adds a handful of entries to his journal. When it's clear there aren’t any other interesting hero fights to watch or write about, the two boys turn off the television.

Kacchan and Izuku dart through the hallways of the Bakugou household, throw on their shoes, and run up and down the street, each of them yelling about how they’re gonna be the number one hero someday.

Inko Midoriya picks up her son an hour before it gets dark, just as the buzz of the cicadas is beginning to echo through the dusk. Even though Izuku is worn out from a day of rough-housing and imagination he still hugs Kacchan tightly before he leaves. Kacchan squirms out of the hug after a second of hesitation.

“Hurry up and get your quirk so you can keep up with me, loser!”

“I will!” Izuku promises as his mother pulls him down the street towards their house.

“I’m not gonna let some nobody be my sidekick!”

Izuku and his mother’s apartment is only a couple of blocks from Kacchan’s house. As he walks home, he grips his mother’s hand and tells her about his playdate with Kacchan.

...

Inko Midoriya just wants to protect her son.

It’s why she doesn’t tell him that Gemini, the new hero duo Izuku seems to be obsessed with, died under mysterious circumstances earlier that day.

It’s why she doesn’t let him turn on the television when they get home.

It’s the reason that she quickly and gently shuts down any mention of heroes the next few days.

All she wants is to protect her son from the plague of death that has cropped up among the hero community in the last week. It's not uncommon for villains to target heroes, or even for a group of heroes to tragically pass away in a fight. However, the sheer number of heroes that have died the past week is strange, not to mention terrifying.

Without any warning, heroes are dying of heart attacks on the spot. In their homes, at their jobs, alone, in large groups. The sporadic nature of the deaths has most of the hero community on edge and Inko doesn't want to shatter Izuku's illusion that his favorite heroes are invincible.

The television stays off permanently in the Midoriya household.

When Izuku gets really worked up, insisting he needs more information on heroes for his research, Inko prints off an online article about heroes- something safe and child appropriate- heroes rescuing kittens from trees and fundraising for charity and the like.

Mostly she tries to steer him away from heroes, and the increasingly large death count that's wracking the hero community, completely.

“Wouldn’t you rather go play with you toys, Izuku?”

“Izuku, turn off the t.v. please. I told you that we’re going to the park instead today.”

“Izuku, let’s go play with Katsuki today, I’ll bet he’s missing you.”

Inko suspects that Izuku is still watching hero fights at the Bakugou’s household. He talks about new heroes after spending the day at Mitsuki's.

Inko knows that Mitsuki lets Katsuki pretty much watch whatever he wants (usually hero fights), so she asks Mitsuki to start turning off the television and entertain the boys in another way on days when Izuku comes over. Inko feels a bit guilty about it, but Mitsuki readily agrees when she calls her on the phone.

“If it’s not too much trouble, Mitsuki. I feel terrible forcing my parenting style on you.”

“You aren’t forcing me to do anything, Inko. We’re allowed to have different parenting styles.”

“Thank you so much.”

“No problem Inko-chan!”

Inko chuckles softly at the old nickname.

“Besides.” Mitsuki’s voice grows somber, “I've been thinking about cutting back his television time, lately. I don’t want Katsuki watching news stories about those horrible murders either.”

And murder is what they are. The hero community has never been hit so hard before by a string of seemingly random, senseless deaths. Over 30 heroes dead in the course of 14 days, ranging in age, gender, quirk type, hero agency, and fame. The murder itself ranges in time and location, but most of them are generally centered in Musutafu, Japan. The sole defining factor is that all of the heroes died from a heart attack.

It only makes sense that there’s a person out there with a grudge against heroes and some sort of long range, extremely lethal quirk. It’s a terrifying thought, that a person out there has that much power. Inko wants her son to be safe- to feel safe- even if it means creating the illusion that his favorite heroes are completely fine.

Even if it means not letting him watch any television, distracting him when he starts talking about heroes, lying to him when he asks why he can’t watch the hero fights Katsuki can.

She wonders if she’s making a mistake, coddling him too much. Then she hears about another hero found dead in their home and her conviction returns. No sane person would willingly subject their child to the horrible reality of murder at the age of five.

Well, almost five. Izuku is turning six soon. His birthday, and his appointment with the new quirk doctor, is on the fifteenth of July. Inko has high hopes for the new doctor, even though Izuku is almost six and well past the age when quirks commonly manifest. She has a feeling that her son isn’t quirkless- call it a mother’s intuition.

...

The doctor is overly friendly in the way that adults who work with small children tend to be. He gives Izuku a cheerful grin. “Good news! He has the proper pinky toe, I mean, he’s lacking in the vestigial joint. So a late-blooming quirk is by no means out of the picture.”

“YES!” Izuku bursts into tears “I knew it!”

He kicks his feet excitedly against the examination table as tears run down his face. Inko braces herself in relief against the sterile yet colorfulwalls of the clinic and finds herself tearing up a little as well. It’s nice to cry happy tears instead of the awful, stressed tears that have become so common lately.

“Of course, there’s also the possibility he has an invisible quirk.”

The doctor pulls a small booklet out of the brochure holder on the examination table. It’s titled _Invisible Quirks- What Should Parents Know?_

Inko gratefully accepts the booklet as the doctor continues,"Invisible quirks are when a quirk is so specific or requires such extraordinary circumstances that the user might have trouble realizing it exists.”

“Like what?” Izuku chimes in.

The doctor glances around suspiciously, smirking slyly like he's about to share a secret.

"My quirk is an invisible quirk."

"What!"

“Yep! My quirk lets me grow my toenails as fast as I want just by thinking about it. I didn’t realize this until I was ten because it’s not exactly something you think about everyday.”

“Really?!”

"It's crazy. I thought I was quirkless for so long. It's why I ended up becoming a quirk doctor."

"Hey!" Izuku gasps, “Can you grow your fingernails as well? What about hair, since it’s made of the same stuff as nails?”

The doctor laughs at the boy’s enthusiasm. “I can! Although I didn't figure that out until med school. Are you thinking about becoming a quirk doctor, kid?”

“I’m gonna be a hero.” The doctor smiles amusedly, although the slightly condescending look on his face signals that he’s heard those words a 100 times before. Then his smile drops off of his face.

“Be careful, kiddo. With the Heart Attack Killer on the loose you might not want to go around announcing that.”

Inko’s own heart sinks in her chest as confusion glances across her son’s expression.

“The, the Heart Attack Killer?” Izuku stutters.

“Doctor,” Inko cuts in, “Thank you so much for your help, but I really feel that isn’t an appropriate discussion topic for my six-year old child.”

“Of course. I apologize.” The doctor nods cordially. “Hey buddy, you were a great patient today... do you want a sticker!?”

The sticker distracts Izuku enough that he doesn’t mention the heart attack killer until they leave the office. Inko doesn't own a car because she lives close enough to her work and Izuku's kindergarten that she can walk them both in the mornings. For longer trips like this one, the mother and son take the subway into town. Although public transit is fairly safe and affordable in Musutafu, Inko has been considering getting a car.

There aren't any elementary schools in the area near their house and Izuku will be moving to first grade next year. She doesn't want to move- It would break Izuku's heart if he couldn't visit Katsuki everyday and to be honest, Inko doesn't want the pain of moving either. Inko may be a single mother but she has a great support group in the Bakugou's. Not to mention the apartment she's currently in is the apartment she and Hisashi rented in in the first years of her marriage. Leaving the apartment- with its plethora of happy memories- feels wrong.

Inko is debating this dilemma on the way home, which is why she doesn't notice the young couple sitting on the other end of the subway car immediately. Izuku however, notices them. He hears their words loud and clear as they wait for their stop.

“It’s so scary, all those heroes dying.” The woman says.

“Yeah, if the Heart Attack Killer can kill pro heroes, who can’t he kill?” The man replies.

"It could be a girl! And they haven't targeted any civilians though."

"Probably because he-they-whatever has a vendetta against the pros. Maybe a pro hero put them in jail or something."

"No way one person is killing over 30 people from prison. I bet they're a social recluse who fancies themself some kind of anti hero."

The train screeches to a stop and the couple gets off at the station. A few minutes later, Izuku and Inko follow suit and are walking out of the station towards their apartment. 

Izuku doesn't say anything. He's still processing what he heard, trying to understand. He stays silent on the walk home. He knows what death is. He's seen it before, on television, and at the hospital on the day his mom said goodbye to his dad. It means lots of crying and tears and _hurting._ It means pain and nothingness and loss all at once. But heroes... their job is to stop the hurting. 

Heroes save the day with a smile. 

Heroes stop the pain. 

How could it be that the heroes are dying?

It's when Inko and Izuku reach their apartment that he brings it up. As Inko reaches for the door, fumbling with her keys, her boy finally turns to his mother with big eyes and asks, “Who is the Heart Attack Killer, mommy?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My brain while writing that last part: Literally when have you ever heard people talking loud enough to be overheard on the other end of the car on the Japanese subway?  
> Me: shut up brain I need plot progression somehow. Pretend they're loud Americans or something.
> 
> But really, Japanese subways tend to be much quieter and cleaner than American subways which freaked me out and made me a bit jealous when I visited Japan.
> 
> Also, poor Izuku! He's six years old and he already has a villain rep (T - T)
> 
> Let me know if you liked this-- Your kind words, comments, Kudos, etc give me motivation to write more (I'm still undecided on how long I want this to be)!


	3. Discovery

Izuku is a bright child.

The other children in his class might whisper ‘quirkless’ and ‘freak’ behind his back, but no one can deny that for what he lacks in power he makes up for with his razor sharp focus and skilled analysis of heroes, quirks, and pretty much anything else that catches his attention.

Izuku realizes that Gemini is dead only a week after he comes home from Kacchan’s house and his mother tells him, “No more heroes.” He’s playing outside with Kacchan and Izuku brings up Gemini.

“I was going to look up more about their quirks but my mom said we had to turn the T.V. off-”

“Don’t ya know?” Kacchan cuts in “They died yesterday. They were filming an interview and just keeled over or something.”

Izuku goes pale. His mind flashes back to the Lucky hero and the way the emotions and life drained from the man’s body. All of the sudden Izuku is sitting in front of the screen again, frozen in horror. The world constricts and the green-haired child wants to shake himself from his memories but it's like he’s trapped inside of his own mind, that awful moment replaying over and over and over and-

“Hey!” Bakugou gives him a not-so-gentle shove, snapping Izuku out of the flashback. "Why are you crying, nerd?"

He isn’t inside, watching that awful hero fight on his mom’s laptop. He’s standing outside the apartment building and it’s cool out, not blisteringly hot, and he and Kacchan are talking about Gemini, not Ishida Kichiro. He swallows thickly and the strange feeling of helplessness that had hijacked his body loosens slightly and he reaches up to rub at his eyes.

“That’s awful.” He manages to say without thinking of Kichiro’s face. Kacchan doesn’t seem to care. He shrugs.

“It’s not like they were the number one hero duo or anything. Extras like them get taken out by villains all the time.”

“That’s a terrible thing to say! Kacchan, they probably had friends and families! Besides, didn’t you say they died during an interview or something?”

“Yeah, they both died of a heart attack simultaneously. That’s not normal, idiot.”

“So you think a villain killed them!”

“I don’t know, It’s what the damn news is saying!” Kacchan yells and stomps off towards the dilapidated playground that sits outside the Midoriya’s apartment building.

The playground is the reason Kacchan has come over. With Izuku being banned from watching hero fights, the parents of the two boys had elected for them to meet up somewhere that had an alternate method of entertainment other than a computer or television screen. The playground is meant for small children and might have been a draw for the apartment complex in the past- however it's clearly in a state of disrepair, and has been for some time.

The swingset is missing one of the swings, the climbing wall is wrapped with caution tape, and there is a sign stuck to fence that reads, _Playground equipment is out of service please do not climb, We apologize for the inconvenience_

This sign won’t stop Kacchan. People usually assume that a six year old can’t read in the first place, but in actuality, Kacchan can read at about the same level as Izuku- a couple of grades above their current class level.

Regardless of the sign, the playground has a small plastic and metal fort with slides still standing that Kacchan is currently attempting to climb to the top of.

He’s half way up the wobbly structure when Izuku follows him and calls out, “Kacchan, we’re not supposed to climb on the playground equipment.”

“Hah!?” Kacchan calls back, halfway up the metal structure hanging on perilously by a single hand.

“My mom said not to climb on the playground. The landlord put up a sign and everything!”

“That’s dumb. And this sign can't stop me because I can’t read!”

In an impressive display for a six year old, Kacchan lets go of his one handed grip and leans back until he’s hanging upside down, suspended by his knees.

“Kacchan you might fall!” Izuku eeps, too hesitant to climb the structure himself.

Kacchan snorts in response and swings back and forth a little.

“And we both know that you can read fine. My mom won’t believe you if you tell her that.”

Scoffing in reply, Bakugou pulls himself back up and mutters, “I only came over here because your stupid mom doesn’t want you to watch hero fights anymore.”

Izuku gasps, tears immediately springing to his eyes. “My, my mom isn’t stupid!”

“She’s not letting you watch any hero fights and now she wont even let you play on the playground! That’s stupid!”

Something about Bakugou's tone if off. It’s not his normal I-know-better-than-you tone, or even the aggressive one he takes when something sets off his temper. Maybe if Izuku was a little older he would have thought back to the conversation they had about Gemini only a few minutes prior. Maybe he would have remembered that Bakugou had looked just as upset about it as he felt. In the future, Izuku will look back at this moment and wonder about how Katsuki deals with his grief.

But Izuku is only five (almost six) so instead he responds with an extremely mature, “I’m gonna tell Auntie Mitsuki that you said my mom is stupid!”

Kacchan swings his legs off the plastic structure and quickly shimmies back to earth. He tries to play it off like it wasn’t a big deal but Izuku can see the blonde eyeing him nervously, trying to decide if the threat was real or just a bluff.

“You didn’t have to bring the old hag into it. Let’s go play on the swings, useless.” The two boys take turns sharing the swingset for the rest of the day.

Kacchan doesn’t try to climb the dangerous structures for the next three playdates and in return Izuku never tells Auntie Mitsuki about the insult.

...

Gemini and their untimely death slips Izuku’s mind. The summer progresses and Kacchan still talks about heroes and quirks but he never brings up hero deaths again. He says his mom has taken a page out of Auntie Inko’s book and won’t let him watch the real violent stuff anymore. She still lets him watch hero fights, but they’re all boring as shit, according to Kacchan.

The heroes always crush the villains, sometimes without any action either. The other day his mom put on a hero fight that was really just some lameass bank robbers peeing their pants in fear when All Might showed up to stop them. They didn’t even try to put up a fight, which made the hero "fight" pointless, (even if All Might was there). Basically, Kacchan spends a lot of time expounding about how annoying it is that he doesn’t get to see good action anymore but he doesn’t call Izuku’s mom stupid, so Izuku counts it as a win.

Besides, Auntie Mitsuki is the one enforcing the rule for the blonde boy, so Kacchan, at the very least, has realized that he can’t blame Izuku’s mom for his own mother's decisions. Apparently whenever Kacchan is watching a hero fight and it starts to look ugly Auntie Mitsuki storms into the room yelling, “WHAT THE HELL? I TOLD YOU TO KEEP IT PG!”

Izuku laughs a bit at that image.

“Shut up, asshole, do you think my pain is funny?” Kacchan grumbles.

“Pain? My mom doesn’t even want to talk about heroes! You’re lucky you at least get to watch some hero fights.”

“Pffft. If I really want to watch something I’ll just steal my mom’s phone after she goes to sleep and look up the news.”

“Kacchan, you wouldn’t!”

“I will! I’ll do it tonight! But, uh, you have to do it with me.”

Kacchan and Izuku are having a sleepover at Kacchan’s house to celebrate Izuku’s birthday. He’s turning six, the same age as Kacchan. Izuku’s mom offered to host a big party and invite all of his and Kacchan’s friends, but Izuku insisted he just wanted to spend the night at his friend's house instead. He didn’t really have the heart to tell his mom that he wasn’t exactly friends with most of the people in his class (not that it mattered to Izuku, when he had the best friend he could ever hope for in Kacchan).

“My mom would kill me.” Izuku insists, bashing Kacchan's head lightly with his pillow.

Katsuki roars in anger and retaliates with barrage of flying pillows. The two are camped out in Kacchan’s bedroom, with a pillow and blanket fort taking up most of the space, there’s barely enough room for Izuku’s sleeping bag. The boys are currently in said fort, admiring the All Might trading cards Kacchan got Izuku for his birthday while simultaneously chucking throw pillows and couch cushions at each other.

Kacchan pauses in his appraisal of the trading cards to lock eyes with Izuku. “Do it, or I’ll tell everyone at school that you’re a wimp.”

“Ha! They already think I’m a wimp!” Izuku dodges a purple throw pillow shaped like an octopus.

Kacchan grunts in annoyance as he parries an already singed pillow with a small blast from his palms, “Fine, you don’t have to do it with me, but you aren’t allowed to stop me.”

Izuku doesn’t say anything. If he’s honest to himself, he kinda misses hearing the news about the latest heroes. He’s secretly jealous of Kacchan- even if the boy only gets a censored version of the news, at least Kacchan is getting to watch something. Katsuki seems to take Izuku’s quiet sigh as a sign of approval for his plan.

“Alright. My mom always charges her cell in her office at night and then goes right to bed. Dad just watches T.V. in the living room all night. We just have to wait for her to fall asleep and then we can get it.”

The plan goes exactly as planned- which isn’t saying that much considering it wasn’t a very complex plan in the first case. Mitsuki tells the boys to go to bed around eight o’clock, lets Izuku call his mom to say goodnight to her, and then as surely as Kacchan had said, puts her cell in her office and retires to her own room. A few minutes after Izuku and Kacchan hear the quiet hum of television coming from Bakugou’s dad’s study and a soft snoring coming from his parent’s bedroom, the boys creep quietly through the house towards the office. Luckily for the boys, the study is on the other end of the hallway, and the boys dart quietly thrugh the hall without Masaru noticing. They both freeze when Katsuki opens the office door with a fairly loud creak, but when no yelling comes from the bedroom and no feet come down the hallway, the boys relax, gently closing the door.

Kacchan grabs the phone, plugs in some earbuds that were sitting on the desk, and begins scrolling through news feeds.

“Oooh, click the one about All Might!” Izuku whispers, his breath quickening in excitement as he reaches for one of the earbuds.

Kacchan jerks it out of his grasp.

“I thought you didn’t want to watch hero fights.” He whispers smugly.

Guilt nibbles at Izuku’s conscience and he slowly retracts a hand.

“I, I guess you’re right. Um, I probably shouldn’t-”

Maybe guilt is eating at Kacchan’s conscience as well, because when he hears the hesitation and longing mixed into Izuku’s voice, he shoves one of the earbuds into Izuku’s hands with an annoyed, “Shut the hell up and listen.”

Izuku beams at Kacchan as he clicks on the All Might video. The two boys fall into an old habit, clicking through videos, remarking on the heroes, imagining what they would do if they ever had to fight a villain. At one point Izuku even pulls out his hero analysis notebook, even though it earns him an unimpressed glare from Kacchan.

“Clearly you agree with me that the no-hero-fight-videos rule is stupid if you brought that book with you.”

Izuku shifts uncomfortably as he thinks of the brief argument he and Bakugou had a few days prior at the playground.

“The rule doesn’t mean I can’t write about heroes. I’ve been filling it with the heroes you talk about, see?”

Izuku flips to a random page. He has almost 45 entries now, written laboriously in his childish characters. He’s been updating the book as best he can from his and Kacchan’s censored conversations about heroes, as well as from the little exposure his mother allows him to the world of heroes. Lot’s of the entries are incomplete and stilted, put together with as little information as a hero name and a quirk.

“Actually Kacchan, could we look up some of the heroes you told me about? I want to write more about them in my journal.” Kacchan begrudgingly begins searching for hero fights that Izuku can record information about. They start off with All Might because it's easy to find lots of videos of his fights. After a couple minutes, Izuku asks to move on.

“That hero you told me about, Air Warrior Kenji Nara? I want to see the rest of that fight.” Izuku mutters.

The past week, Kacchan had practically waxed poetic about how awesome the fight was (meaning Kacchan had told Izuku that it was ‘cool as hell or whatever’). However, Air Warrior was a hero Izuku had never heard of, so he had soaked up all the information that Kacchan was willing to give. Air Warrior was a pretty plain looking guy- brown eyes, black hair, average build- but his quirk was amazing. The ability to control wind gave him the ability to fly, a sort of limited telekinesis, It even allowed him to affect weather patterns.

“Even though he looks like an extra he’s pretty strong-” Kacchan stops mid sentence and Izuku leans over to see what has come up on screen.

The blond boy is searching the web for an Air Warrior video but the results aren’t awesome clips of the hero Air Warrior beating up villains like Kacchan had shown Izuku the past week.

The top results are all about Kenji Nara’s death.

A funeral was held earlier that day because Kenji Nara- a young, athletic hero in his prime- had died of a heart attack last Saturday afternoon. All of the headliners either lament his death or speculate about what killed him.

_He Was a Good Hero and a Better Man: Kenji Nara Will be Missed_... _Air Warrior Funeral Sparks Unrest Over Identity of Heart Attack Killer- HEARTBREAKING Footage of Death_

Kacchan’s thumb hovers over the link. As if in slow motion, Izuku watches the digit descend, and a video of the footage from Air Warrior’s funeral begins to load on the screen.

"Kach- Kachhan, should we-" Izuku begins to stutter out a timid protest.

"Shut up." Bakugou cuts him off as the clip begins to play.

The video shows a huge group of mourners watching as the heroes ashes are scattered to the wind. A small group of people in funeral colors are huddled front and center.

Two elderly citizens, a man and a woman, stand in the group. The man is old and bent over a cane. He’s gripping the elderly woman as if he’s the only thing keeping her standing. Although, maybe it's the other way around, Izuku thinks as the old woman caresses her husband’s shoulder reassuringly. Next to them there’s a beautiful blonde woman wearing two wedding rings- one on her finger and one on a chain around her neck. She’s tall and curvy with her hair perfectly coiffed and her nails done to match her ruffled blouse and skirt. Her face, however, is blank. She looks like a paper doll, pretty but fragile. There’s also a little boy, perhaps a year younger than Kacchan and Izuku, who has his mother’s hair and his father’s eyes.

Izuku only catches a glimpse of those brown eyes before the boy shys away from the camera crew and turns to bury his face in his mother's skirt. Izuku feels a strange sense of detachment as he watches the video. In his mind, he knows that this is a funeral. That little boy is probably feeling the same way Izuku did when Izuku went to his own father’s funeral. Yet for some reason, Izuku has the distinct feeling that he’s watching a movie and the boy, the woman, and the elderly couple are just actors on a stage.

The scene cuts to footage of a hospital. It’s rushed and shaky, like someone is videotaping on their phone while running. A man with brown eyes and black hair is being rushed through the hallways on a stretcher. A flurry of doctors and nurses surround him. Izuku’s heart sinks. The blonde woman is there as well. She’s wearing pajama bottoms and a sweatshirt and Izuku can’t help but think she doesn’t look anything like the beautiful, solemn woman that had been on screen only a few seconds earlier, it couldn’t possibly be the same person. Then he catches a glimpse of her hands; she’s wearing the same wedding ring and she’s gripping her husband’s hands so tightly that her knuckles have gone white, making the golden band stand out against her skin.

“Stay with me, Kenji.” Her voice cracks as if she’d spent the last few hours yelling.

“Hey!” shouts the person taking the video, trying to move closer to the man on the stretcher “Isn’t that the famous hero, Air Warrior! Hey, is he dead?”

Mrs. Nara’s head shoots up and she glares at the camera, “Get that phone out his face you piece of-”

The video cuts back to the funeral and Mrs. Nara is holding a handful of ashes, her face completely blank in a stark contrast to the hospital clip. The man from the elderly couple is outright sobbing and the little boy is in his arms, gripping tightly to his grandfather.

Mrs. Nara releases the ashes and they disappear into the wind.

A news anchor voices over the video. “Today Mrs. Nara, wife of the late hero Air Warrior, struck up concern over her decision to have a public funeral for the hero. Many are worried that a public ceremony for Air Warrior, latest victim of the Heart Attack Killer, will only encourage the villain to continue his killing spree.”

“What- What is this?” Kacchan says, his voice loud in the quiet rooom.

Izuku jumps in fear. He had been so invested in the clip he had forgotten about Kacchan sitting right next to him.

The news anchor continues, “There is also mounting concern that Kenji Nara’s family could be at risk, as we do not know how the killer selects or attacks his victims. Today Air Warrior’s hero agency released this statement from Mrs.Nara.”

The video cuts to a press conference. Mrs. Nara is once again put together and professional looking. However instead of blank emptiness her face is contorted in some emotion halfway between determination and anger. Izuku can’t quite identify it.

“I want my husband to be remembered. He was an amazing hero and human being, and he deserves to have his legacy honored. To the Heart Attack Killer I have this to say: Although you may have taken my husband from me, you will never take away his memory. I will assure you that you will never be able to wipe the memory of Kenji Nara from the world.”

The sound cuts out is replaced once again by the news anchor. “Although Mrs. Nara’s spirit is commendable, heroes from Air Warrior’s agency have shown concern that her bold words and decision to hold a public funeral may put funeral guests, and perhaps even herself, at risk of the wrath of the Heart Attack Killer. Little is known about this nefarious new villain and his methods of operation. His identity and his motivations remain at large, which is the cause for unrest in the hero community.”

The video clip ends and both boys stare as more videos load. Trembling, Izuku reaches out an unsteady hand and clicks play on the next video. They continue to watch silently, not sharing another word between them. Video after video after video plays across the phone screen, and Izuku slowly pieces together a picture in his head.

The Heart Attack Killer is a villain who kills heroes from afar, via heart attack. Relatively new, he appeared less than a month ago, and despite never claiming his kills or releasing his identity, has already racked up huge amounts of infamy. There are news clips about his victims and their funerals, not to mention memorials dedicated to the lives he’s destroyed. The Heart Attack Killer- whoever he is- is truly the most despicable of villains. Izuku feels sick. Kichiro haunts his thoughts and Izuku does the best to push the lucky (unlucky?) hero out of his mind. There are conspiracy videos on the Heaert Attack Killer as well, some of them are presented halfway deccently by the big media companies and Kacchan clicks on one of those.

The first frame is a list of all the people the Heart Attack Killer has murdered. There are exactly 37 names. The very first name is Ishida Kichiro and suddenly everything clicks into place.

Izuku has always been a bright boy. He doesn’t need the notebook to confirm his suspicions but he flips to the page anyways. The name is there, exactly like he remembered it, written in his very own hand next to the date he wrote the entry... the date of Kichiro’s death. Izuku turns the page, hoping that his fears won’t be confirmed. It’s the entry about All Might. Izuku’s hopes soar; All Might isn’t dead. There’s no way that the Heart Attack Killer could be...

Izuku turns the page again, and a terrible little seed of an idea plants itself in his mind, growing roots that slither deep down into his consciousness. On the page is his entry about Kenji Nara, written last Saturday afternoon.

Izuku turns the page, praying to anyone listening that he’s mistaken, that the idea he's too afraid to voice is just an irrational fear. Instead, another dead hero’s name stares up at him.

He turns the page again.

Again.

Again.

Everything matches up, almost perfectly. For most of the names Izuku has written in his journal, there is a dead hero. Even the time of death matches to when Izuku had written each entry. The little seed of dread is suddenly too much to ignore and Izuku takes a deep breath, realizing his lungs haven't been working properly for the past few seconds. From the light-headed feeling he wonders if he’s been breathing at all.

“Was, was, this me?” He stutters, his heart racing and his lungs burning. He looks up from the condemning pages of his journal and sees Kacchan staring at the blatantly obvious death notes sitting in front of him. Kacchan’s head slowly rises and Izuku can’t place the expression on Kacchan’s face. The blonde boy glances at Izuku, then at the journal, then back at Izuku.

“I’m going to sleep.” the blonde announces.

Katsuki stands up, plugs his mom’s phone back into the charger, and goes to his bedroom. Izuku follows him, noting that the television in the study is off and Masaru has gone to bed. Izuku isn’t sure what time it is. He has no idea if he was watching those videos for ten minutes or hours. Everything feels hazy and unsure but somehow Izuku makes it to his sleeping bag in Kacchan’s room without tripping over the blanket fort or pillows lying haphazardly about the room.

As he lies there in the darkness he feels tears running down his cheeks, which is strange, because he feels mostly confused and afraid.

Izuku tries not to think about whether or not the doctor might find something terrible at his quirk appointment tomorrow.

He thinks about his mom and Kacchan and Auntie Mitski instead.

...

The next morning Izuku’s mom picks him up and brings him back to their apartment. Izuku’s quirk appointment isn’t until afternoon, so he has a few hours to investigate his fears.

When his mom asks him how his sleepover with Katsuki was, Izuku smiles widely and gives her a timid, “Fun, I guess. Um, I’m gonna play outside mom!” Izuku figures he isn't lying because he really did have fun at the Bakugous'... until he saw that video. He races outside, but instead of going to the run-down park to play on the swings like he usually does, Izuku re-enters the apartment building and goes to a different floor. He knocks quietly on the run-down apartment door and is relieved when it opens almost immediately.

“Hah, little Midoriya?” The man that opens the door is withered with age, but must have been a handsome figure at his peak, with light brown hair and a trim physique. However at the ripe old age of 81, Mr. Williamsport, a former national of the United Kingdom, is currently but a shell of his former self.

Alexander Williamsport moved from Scotland to Musutafu in his 20’s to be with the love of his life, Elena. His quirk, soulmate, allowed him to see his compatibility with romantic partners. He met Elena during a study abroad trip and instantly fell in love, leaving everything behind to be with her in Japan. As far as Izuku knows, they lived happily together for nearly 60 years, until Mrs. Williamsport died a few years before Izuku was born. Since then, the man became something of a hermit. However, he still loves to talk about his dear Elena, and will do so with anyone willing to lend an ear, which is how he became acquainted with the Midoriyas.

Izuku’s mom struck up a conversation with Mr. Williamsport one day and before Izku knew it, he was dropping off cookies at Mr. Williamsport’s apartment around the holidays and accompanying the man on his trips to the grocery store. An upside to this neighborly friendship is that when Izuku’s mom is busy, Mr.Williamsport lets Izuku hang out in his apartment, watch television, and sometimes, use his ancient computer.

“Mr. Williams, Williamspor- uh Williamsport, can I use your computer?” Izuku stammers nervously, trying not to butcher the foreign name.

The man just chuckles, “Of course little Midoriya! Is your mother at work today?” Izuku lets the elderly man assume what he wants and makes his way over to the even older computer.

Mr.Williamsport has settled in his recliner and is rambling about his dearest Elena and how much she hated the computer, but he could never bear to throw it out, except for that one time when he tried to pawn it off…

Mr. Williamsport’s story fades into background noise as Izuku clicks into the search engine and begins to look for news. It isn’t difficult to find information on the Heart Attack Killer. The internet is saturated with conspiracies, stories, and debates.

_Heart Attack Killer Victims: Random or Connected?_

_“The Heart Attack Killer Ruined My Life” exclusive interview with Air Warrior’s loved ones_

One of the titles looks especially promising: _Who is the Heart Attack Killer?_

Izuku clicks on the link and is taken to an internet forum, the kind that debate about heroes anonymously online. Painstakingly, Izuku works his way through the opendiscussion. It’s difficult without his mom to help him with words he doesn’t know, but he doesn’t want to ask for Mr. Williamsport’s help either. This feels private, like its up to Izuku to discover whether or not that horrible feeling he had last night was paranoia or reality.

_The debate on the identity of the “Heart Attack Killer” has been at the heart of many news stories the past couple of weeks, but what do you guys think his motivations really are?_

_NINJA69: Probably some sicko villain with a vendetta lol_

_BARRY_12: trash \\(o - o)/_

_KATI3BURNNNNZ: Does it matter? I just want them to be caught already :( I don’t feel safe in my own home my friends are pro heroes and they don’t feel safe either and clealry this is not a normal villian._

_DOMINIQUELIKES4SS: “clealry” lmao these people_

_ALLMIGHTS#1FAN7239: Hmmmmmmmmmm have we considered that maybe the villain has a reason for killing the heroes? Like, maybe they all failed him in some way or maybe there’s more going on that we don’t know about. What if the “villain” is just a normal guy with a powerful quirk who is tired of fake heroes getting praised for doing shit?_

_DARKPHOENIX: (comment removed by moderators)_

Izuku continues to skim through the thread, reading every comment and conspiracy theory on who the Heart Attack Killer could be. Although most of the theories seem to revolve around the villain trying to get revenge on the heroes in someway, there’s a certain comment that catches Izuku’s eye.

_BLAIRE_W1TCH_3000: So, this is just a thought but… the heart attack killer could be a kid. Everyone’s saying that the killer must be an adult to get away with this many murders, but it could totally be a little kid who just got their quirk and can’t control it yet… All the heroes that died featured prominently in the news, and little kids eat that stuff up. My little brother loves to watch hero fights… It could be that some kid has a long distance quirk that can happen to kill people and for some reason the kid just decided to test it out on the heroes_.

Most of the people on the forum ignored the comment, a few people even going out of their way to dismiss it entirely. But as soon as Izuku reads it, he's hit with a sense of finality, too similar to the feeling the previous night when everything had clicked into place.

Everything fits too perfectly. The names, the times of deaths, the fact that every hero that died is someone Izuku has obsessed over in the past.

“This is my quirk.” He mumbles to himself, half in shock. “I’m not quirkless.”

“... and that’s how I ended up going back to the pawn shop for the same computer, eh, Whats that, Midoriya?” Mr. Williamsport asks, stumbling to a stop in the middle of his forgotten story.

“I’m not quirkless.” Izuku mutters, “but I think my quirk is bad. It hurts people.”

“There’s no such thing as a bad quirk, Midoriya, In fact, for the first few years of my life I thought my quirk was useless! It wasn’t until I met my darling wife, Elena, that I understood…” Mr. Williamsport trails off into another account of his love for his departed wife while Izuku continues to stare at the computer screen, not listening.

_Who is the Heart Attack Killer?_ Glares out from the screen and suddenly Izuku doesn’t want to look at that sentence anymore.

Izuku turns off the computer, and his own face stares out at him from the darkened reflection on the screen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so Izuku knows (lols nervously). uhhhhh I didn’t mean for this whole chapter to be a flashback but WELP. I wrote most of this, lost inspiration, stopped writing entirely for like a week, and then continued writing at like 11:30 at night on the 4th of July. I promise you guys next chapter we will finish the flashback. Also, I'm going to attempt to upload 3 chapters a month until summer ends since I literally have nothing else to do.  
> Also, sorry about the billions of OCs but they're kind of necessary since we don't know a lot of figures from Izuku's childhood and I'm too chicken to kill off ones that we do know....
> 
> or am i ?  
> :)


	4. Realization

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If you want to have some input on this story and you have a spare second, please give me suggestions for ships you’d like to see!  
> ...  
> (edit: I updated this chapter (7/11/20) but the only things I changed were a few typos that were bothering me. I also moved the art piece to the end of the chapter because I felt it was breaking up the flow of the writing)  
> WARNING: Bullying, graphic violence, implied panic attacks, death, VIOLENT DEATH  
> ...

Izuku goes to his quirk doctor's appointment, putting the fear and horror out of his mind with the efficiency that only an easily distracted six year old can master. He talks excitedly with the doctor about invisible quirks and even theorizes about what his own quirk could be, at least until the doctor brings up the Heart Attack Killer. At the mention of the murder spree, Izuku’s mother snaps at the doctor, quieting him and any further mention of the killer. The tense situation causes Izuku’s heart rate to accelerate and his palms to grow sweaty with nervousness, but the mention of a shiny All Might sticker soon draws Izuku’s attention away and calms him once again.

It’s not until he’s riding home with his mother on the subway, All Might sticker plastered across his chest like a seal of protection, that his thoughts begin to turn sour.

The Heart Attack Killer is Izuku.

Izuku is the Heart Attack Killer.

But the Heart Attack Killer is a bad guy and he isn’t a bad guy, Izuku attempts to rationalize to himself....He never wanted to hurt anyone, he didn’t even know that he was using his quirk! He’s not even sure how it works yet, except that every hero he wrote a journal entry about has died only moments later. Izuku never planned to be a villain, he’d always assumed that villains had some choice in the matter. Scratch that, he’d always assumed there was no possible way he would ever become anything but a hero. He's afraid and confused and he doesn’t feel like a villain (how are villains supposed to feel) but he doesn't quite feel guilty about the murders either, which is mildly concerning.

He thinks to himself disjointedly that maybe he should feel more apologetic for hurting all those people. A hero would feel bad if they hurt someone, right? Or is it weird that he feels guilty for not feeling guilty? He's too detached from it all, maybe it hasn't sunk in yet.

Instead, his mind keeps coming back to a different question... How is this fair?

Izuku mumbles, “I’ve waited two whole years to get a quirk and I get the worst one in the world," but his words are lost in the rattle of the subway rounding a bend.

He’s been cheated; it’s like he’s opened all his christmas presents after a month of agonizing waiting just to find that they contain socks and nothing else. Izuku wonders if he could still be a hero- maybe there’s some unexplored aspect of his quirk that could let him save people. All he has to do is play around with his quirk a little and perhaps… As if by fate, he overhears a couple talking to each other from across the car.

“It’s so scary, all those heroes dying.” The woman says.

“Yeah, if the Heart Attack Killer can kill pro heroes, who can’t he kill?” The man replies.

Izuku immediately berates himself for even considering such a thing. He has already hurt enough people, he doesn’t need to risk even more just to find out how his quirk works. That’s how a villain would think. Izuku doesn’t want to be a villain. He knows what villains are- they hurt people, and sometimes even kill people. But heroes... their job is to stop the hurting. Heroes save the day with a smile. Heroes stop the pain.

How could it be that he’s the one killing them? How is that fair, when all Izuku ever wanted to be was a hero?

He mutters under his breath for the rest of the way home, keeping to himself as quietly as possible and stewing in his thoughts. The temperature is dropping and it’s just starting to get dark when the Midoriya family arrives home, with the sun’s rays lessening in their brightness as the apartment building and nearby playfort cast shadows that stretch out along the pavement. Izuku is completely consumed by the debate raging under his breath. Is he a villain or not? Does he even have a choice? Surely he can find a way to use his quirk for good.

He decides the only thing to do is ask the one person in his life who knows everything. Standing outside the apartment in the fading sunshine seems as good a time as any, so without any warning he asks, “Who is the Heart Attack Killer, mommy?”

Inko Midoriya stills, one hand still on the doorknob and another reaching into her purse to fumble for the keys.

“Remember what I said about heroes and villains, Izuku? We’re not going to worry about it.”

“So… he’s a villain then?”

Inko sighs in response. She unlocks the door and attempts to usher Izuku inside but the green haired boy, in a rare show of defiance, doesn’t move.

“Well, is he? I know he killed uh, a lot of people”

Inko frowns and responds, “Where did you hear about this, sweetie?”

Izuku avoids the subject change, partially because he knows he’ll have to confess that he disobeyed his mom, but also due to the fact that he needs answers to his moral dilemma right now.

“Do you think the Heart Attack Killer could be a good guy?”

“What! Sweetie, I know you want to see the best in everybody but some people don’t deserve second chances.”

“Why not?” Izuku whispers quietly.

Inko can feel another sigh building up inside of her but she suppresses it and kneels gently next to her son, placing a gentle hand in his hair.

“There are some people in this world that are cruel and evil and bad. I told you not to watch the news because I wanted to protect you from this reality- people can be awful.”

“But, what if he didn’t mean to hurt anybody, the killer, i mean, maybe-”

“Izuku, the Heart Attack Killer has hurt so many people that it couldn’t have been an accident. There are just some people in this world so messed up, so fundamentally bad, that there’s no hope for them.”

“So...” Izuku whispers, tears trapped behind his eyes and begging to roll down his cheeks, “The Hear-Heart- Heart Attack Killer is a bad guy?”

“Yes. They are a villain.”

“And there’s no hope for him- them? They don’t deserve a second chance?” Izuku’s voice breaks on the last word. I

nko pulls her crying son into her arms and replies, “I’m not sure… but I don’t think they’ll ever get one, sweetie.”

As Izuku sobs fully into his mother’s shirt, the only thing he can think is, _‘Mom, that’s not what I wanted you to say.’_

…

Izuku decides he can never tell his mother about his quirk. The thought of lying to her is difficult, but the thought of her looking at him with the same hatred she holds for the Heart Attack Killer? That would be a thousand times worse. The day after his appointment, while they’re eating breakfast, Izuku tells his mom it’s okay that he’s quirkless. This time she’s the one that breaks down into tears. He pats her awkwardly on the head in a rough facsimile of the way she ruffled his hair in comfort the night before. Afterwards, the two spend the entire day watching All Might clips together.

Izuku takes his hero analysis journal, stuffs it underneath his mattress, and does his best to put it out of his mind.

...

When he brings the subject of his "quirklessness" with Bakugou it goes much worse.

“I’m quirkless, Kacchan.”Izuku curls his toes inside of his sneakers and avoids eye contact with the blond boy.

“No way! You told me you don’t have the extra pinkie joint!” Kacchan looks annoyed, as if Izuku is somehow offending him with his supposed quirklessness.

“But, it’s okay.”

“Your quirk could still come in, right? And what about last-”

“Kacchan, drop it.”

In any other timeline, Izuku may have been touched by the blonde boy’s insistence that he has a quirk. However in this unfortunate reality, Izuku finds himself praying that the blond boy will just let it go. Izuku doesn’t want Kacchan to wait for his quirk anymore- as far as Izuku is concerned, it would be best if Kacchan stopped caring about him and his lack of quirk completely.

The blond haired boy bites back, “You mean I wasted the last six years of my life hanging around some quirkless loser?”

Izuku flinches at the harmful words, but he nods, relieved that Kacchan is getting the idea.

_'I’m just a quirkless loser, Kacchan, nothing more. Forget about me and never find out about my quirk.'_

The thought of a life without his best friend by his side sends pangs running through Izuku, but he can imagine an even more terrifying future where Kacchan gets caught up in Midoriya’s cursed quirk. Kacchan hopes off the swingset and squints at Izuku in a very un-kacchan moment of silence. Izuku, made uncomfortable by the intensity of his friend’s stare, starts to kick at the playground bark. Anything to keep from meeting Kacchan’s eyes.

“Nope. you have a quirk.” Kacchan decides, “You just aren’t telling me what it is.”

Something about the nonchalance with which Bakugou ignores his request finally angers Izuku. He thinks about the last six years, listening to Kacchan’s stories, letting Kacchan play the hero in their make-believe fights, and siding with the blond boy in every single argument (and Kacchan liked to argue a whole lot). And all he’s asking is that Katsuki accept that he’s quirkless. Yet Kacchan stands here and dismisses Izuku’s lie boldly.

“I’m quirkless, Kacchan! I can’t be a hero! I’m never going to be a hero!” Izuku puts a little venom into his voice this time and it stops Kacchan short. He punctuates the sentence with a sharp kick that sends bark flying through the air. Of course, Izuku wants to scream that he’s not quirkless and he isn’t a loser, but he can’t risk anybody finding out- least of all his best friend.

He still doesn’t want to lose his friend though, so he offers Katsuki a teary smile, reaches out, and says, “But we can still play pretend heroes, Kacchan!”

Something about this statement (Izuku’s never quite sure why) triggers something in Kacchan. The boy scowls and roughly pushes Izuku away, sizing him up.

Katsuki must not like what he finds in Izuku’s defeated expression because he roughly shoves his friend again, practically growling at him as Izuku falls to the bark covered ground with a surprised, “Oomph.”

Although Izuku has been pushed around by Kacchan before, this is the first time that he pushes Izuku so hard that the green haired boy feels something crack in his forearm as he hits the ground. The tiny pieces of wood on the ground dig into Izuku’s arms and legs. Izuku is too shocked to cry.

“So you’re just gonna give up, huh?!”

“Kacchan!” Izuku wails as pain lances down his arm and the tears kick in, but Bakugou is already headed off in the opposite direction.

“Get outta my way, useless.” he grits out as he stomps off.

That night, as Izuku picks bark out of the scrapes on his shins and arms, he convinces his mom that it was an accident (if he blames Bakugou then she might question him as to why they were fighting).

“Bakugou and I were playing heroes and I fell off the playfort, mommy.”

“Izuku, dear, what have I told you about playing on those old things! It’s too dangerous!”

The sharp pain in Izuku’s arm doesn’t go away that night, or the next day, or the next. Izuku tries to bear it at first. He figures the universe is punishing him for all those people he killed. After all, a sore arm is only a fraction of the pain the loved ones of his victims must have felt. However, Inko Midoriya notices (on day three) that Izuku is clearly favoring his non-dominant hand. She takes him back to the doctor’s office and they give him another x-ray. It’s all eerily similar to his quirk appointment only a few days earlier. He gets another All Might sticker out of it, at least. As he leaves, the doctor smiles at him and suggests maybe that his invisible quirk is getting himself into trouble.

Izuku wishes that was the case.

He has a hairline fracture in his wrist. It doesn’t require a permanent cast, just the velcro kind you can buy at the store. While Izuku’s arm is healing up, he isn’t able to go play at the Bakugou’s anymore. It’s physically painful, but the time spent waiting, wondering if Kacchan is still mad at him, is even more agonizing. Izuku fills the days trapped inside with research on his heroes. After his talk with his mom about the Heart Attack Killer, Inko agreed to let him have daily “supervised” computer time to watch hero fights. What Inko doesn’t know is that after she goes to bed, he spends long hours working into the night, trying to find out more information about his quirk.

His quirk- his heart speeds up when he even dares to think the words. Even if it's a murderer's quirk, it's still exciting to know that he-

_Get outta my way, useless._

Of course, Izuku might as well be quirkless, given that he’s not planning on using his quirk any time soon (or ever). Still, it benefits him to understand how his cursed quirk works. From what he can tell, anyone he writes about in his journal dies. Specifically, they die of a heart attack, usually in just under a minute, although there were cases where the person died sooner due to them being mid-fight. Interestingly, not all of the people in his journal are dead. Izuku wrote extensively about both All Might and Endeavor, but both heroes remain in perfect health. It takes Izuku a few days to realize what the similarity is. Their names. Nobody knows All Might’s identity; it’s one of the hero industries most closely guarded secrets. On the other hand, everybody knows the name Enji Todoroki. The number two hero is almost as famous as All Might, but much more liberal in the use of his real name. However when Izuku opens his journal to the entry on Endeavor’s personal life, he sees that the page is simply titled, ‘ _Todoroki_.’ Izuku never used the full name of either hero anywhere in his journal. He re-reads the entry on Kichiro and sees written in the entry _‘Todoroki Enj’_ \- Izuku was a mere character away from completing the man’s name when he was distracted by the death throes of Kichiro on the computer screen.

Flipping back to the Endeavor entry, Izuku skims the pages, this time searching for any mention of the man’s full name and failing to find it.

“It has to be a name, a full name.” Izuku mutters to himself in the dark silence of the house as he reads through his journal late at night. “Not a nickname, not a title... a true name.”

He idly traces the characters with a finger tip. He was so close to killing the number two hero, a feat that most villains would dream of. Izuku imagines what would happen if he completed the name, if he tested the limits of his quirk a bit. Maybe nothing. Maybe he needs to write down the entire name in one go for the death to take place. What if he wrote the name in English, would the man still die since his native language was Japanese? He’s still not sure why the people die of heart attacks. He has no idea whether or not his quirk applies to typing, mediums other than paper, or in other alphabets. He can't test it and it's driving him insane with a kind of morbid curiousity.

He realizes that he's picked up a pen, poised as if to write... 

Izuku shakes away these thoughts because they don’t matter. He’s never going to find the answers to these questions because he’s never using his quirk ever again. Armed with this knowledge, Izuku feels a bit more secure. He resolves to never write full names down again, just in case. He may not be able to be a hero with this quirk, but there’s no reason he can’t have a normal life. A good life, even. At this thought, his insides twist with some ugly emotion, and Izuku reasons that he can still help people and make up for his crimes. Maybe as a fireman or a policeman.

_Villains don’t get to live “good” lives._

A renegade thought slips through his mind.

_Villains don’t deserve normal._

…

Weeks pass, and then a month. Izuku doesn’t live very differently after his big realization that he’s one of the most wanted villains in Japan. It’s not like in books and movies where the angsty protagonist lives every waking moment filled with self-imposed agony and guilt. Most of the time, Izuku just sort of exists, in a limbo between acceptance that he’s a wanted murder and forced forgetfulness as he desperately tries to live normal life without ever thinking of his quirk. Then he breaks down and starts bawling over the smallest thing: someone bringing up his “quirklessness,” thinking about his mother finding out the truth, a bad grade, a fight with Kacchan, etc.

It happens more often at night, and it isn’t uncommon for Izuku to spend the entire evening in his room crying an irritable, hoping his mother doesn’t hear his muffled sobs. Sometimes he starts to feel dizzy, nauseous, or anxious and that's usually a sign that the meltdown is going to be even worse, lasting for hours. It messes with his sleep schedule, sure, but Izuku isn’t sure what he can do to stop feeling the way he does- he can’t control his “meltdowns,” as he’s started privately calling them, or the lack of sleep that results. He learns how to cry quietly without attracting attention to himself and how to take catnaps on every available surface.

He goes to back school.

He avoids writing down anyone’s full names. Thank goodness that most official forms have him spell out his own name by bubbling in the letters- anything else he brings to his mom. She kindly fills out the forms when he asks her, although she teases him relentlessly for “developing a fear of paperwork before he even gets into highschool,” (Izuku only wishes it was paperwork he’s afraid of). On the first day back in class, he immediately figures out the Kacchan is still mad at him, but now the blonde boy is showing it in the form of ignoring him.

The silent treatment isn’t so bad at first. Izuku spends afternoons hanging out with his mom and his neighbors, watching television or talking about heroes. His social life remains nonexistent as the school year progresses, but Izuku doesn’t necessarily try to make friends at school either. Before his quirk manifested, Izuku didn’t really have friends other than Kacchan. Now that Izuku openly claims to be quirkless, he doesn’t even have Kacchan to rely on. Sure, the kids in his apartment building are cordial, but they make it clear that they don’t want to play with the quirkless kid. It should bother him, but he takes odd solace in the fact that nobody cares enough to uncover his secret (nobody cares enough to ask why he sits alone and cries for no reason and always shows up to school with bags under his eyes).

Whenever Izuku approaches Bakugou, the blonde boy responds with harsh words- but it’s nothing Izuku isn’t expecting as the blonde boy seems to have become more aggressive in the past months. At one point, "Deku" replaces "Izuku" as Bakugou’s favored nickname for the green-haired boy. Somewhere along the line, harsh words turn into shoves and punches, burns and kicks. Izuku doesn’t remember the first time that Bakugou leaves burns bad enough that they scar, but he does remember when it becomes a common enough occurrence that his mother is waiting for him with the first aid kit when he gets back from school. That day, A failed attempt at standing up for himself lands him with a black eye, two stitches in his eyebrow, and a mass of red welts around the area (he deserves them, he’d been sleep-deprived enough to try telling Kacchan to shut up and leave him alone). Izuku promises his mom that it was an accident, that Kacchan lost control of his quirk while they were playing, that he didn’t mean anything by it. Izuku’s mom wears the same expression she’d had the last two times he used that excuse. Inko puts a cool washcloth over the disinfected burns along Izuku’s arm and whispers that she’ll talk to Mitsuki next time they get coffee together.

The aggressive behavior doesn't stop, but Izuku accepts that he usually deserves it because that's what the teachers usually tell him with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. In fact, it’s probably horribly selfish of him to wish that someone would stop Bakugou and force the bullies to leave him alone. After all, Mitsuki is one of the few friends that Inko has kept since her childhood, Izuku can’t just ask her to give up on her friendship because he gets into fights with her son. Even worse, if Bakugou gets expelled for picking on the quirkless boy, it would totally ruin his chances at becoming a pro hero. Izuku can jeopardize Bakugou's future over a scuffle. Or at least that’s what the everyone tells him when a bad run-in with the blonde boy leaves Izuku lying in the dirt behind the school, gasping with pain, ears ringing, and struggling to watch Bakugou’s retreating footsteps through the tears in his eyes.

Izku can’t help it. He’s selfish; he wants to walk down the hallway without being called a loser and having nasty words scratched in his desk during lunch. He wants to exist without the constant fear of taunting tongues and hands that glow hot with unprovoked anger. Maybe it's his villainous quirk that makes him selfish? He wonders if his quirk is making him more and more like a villain everyday. Once again, he imagines a world where he picks up a pen, puts it to paper, and doesn’t stop writing until everybody that ever hurt him is dead. He can almost feel the gentle scratch of ink against paper and the rush of power that comes with knowing he holds the life and death between his bruised fingers.

Izuku has a meltdown that night just thinking about it, so he locks himself in his closet, far from any pens or writing utensils, and hyperventilates until he's about to pass out. 

... 

Although the social situation is lacking, Izuku excels in school. While in the classroom, the other kids can stare and whisper but they usually refrain from violence (usually). Izuku starts staying after school- both to fill up his empty afternoons and to avoid Kacchan and his minions. Although the teachers don’t stop the bullies, they appreciate that Izuku is willing to put in the extra work grading papers or cleaning the classroom when he stays after class. Of course, this doesn’t mean all of the teachers like Izuku per se. There’s a particularly difficult teacher in his year that detests the green-haired boy (technically she teaches in the year above him but Izuku is in the advanced languages class).

Izuku never writes his full name on assignments, usually writing an abbreviated _'Zuku Midoriya.'_ However this particular teacher insists the nickname is not professional enough for an essay. She also insists that students write her full name in their paper headers- ' _Ms. Jeraldina Tootle.'_ Izuku gets the feeling that the ill-tempered english teacher has had trouble with students poking fun at her name in the past, hence the strictness about writing it properly and such. Izuku starts off the year by titling his papers I. Midoriya and writing Miss Tootle in the header and hopes the lady will leave it at that. She doesn’t, so he goes back to writing his name the other way. She insists that ' _Zuku_ '' is a childish nickname and that ' _Izuku_ ' is the name he will go by as an adult, so he should start using it now. She also demands that Izuku must write her entire name on every assignment or face the consequences.

He tries to make half-hearted excuses but she ignores him and it's exhausting. Izuku starts purposely misspelling her name on all of the assignments (for her own sake, of course) and hopes she doesn’t think that he’s mocking her (okay maybe he is a little). Izuku would rather that she hate him and live than die due to proper spelling. Ironically, she attempts to train him out of habit by having him write, _'My name is Izuku Midoriya, and my teachers name is Ms. Jeraldina Tootle_ ' 100 times on the chalkboard with proper spelling. Izuku refuses to do the exercise and points out the missing apostrophe. He also accepts the detention as graciously as a spited grade schooler can manage. As he sits through his punishment, he debates the pros and cons of writing his teacher’s name 100 times in his notebook.

...

He still analyses heroes, at first only with their hero names and not their real names. However, after a particularly nasty meltdown in which he daydreams that he accidentally kills several more heroes and their families while writing in his journal, he forgoes the written word entirely. He starts recording his thoughts with an app on his phone. The audio records are a pain to edit but he’s better safe than sorry (despite this, the meltdowns don’t stop). Izuku grows older and the Heart Attack Killer fades into obscurity, his villainous deeds growing distant through the haze of time. They make a documentary about him and release it at the end of the school year. It’s directed by a couple of grad students at a local film school and Izuku wants to see it, but his mom disapproves. She’s loosened her control over the television screen but she still outright refuses to let him watch a two hour movie about an infamous serial killer.

Izuku sneaks over to Mr. Williamsport’s apartment to watch it. He feels like throwing up, for most of it. The families of the victims are interviewed, and every time a loved one appears on screen, Izuku grows more and more nauseous. The guilt- which had been so absent when Izuku had first realized the gravity of his actions- finally seeps in full force. Maybe It’s because Izuku is older now, and understands death better. Maybe it's the footage of a little boy crying. A little boy who never got to meet his parents because he was only a newborn when they died.

"It's not fair." The little boy's aunt says, rocking the infant in her arms. "His parents died as heroes but their killer is still free."

Izuku pauses the movie and has to take a moment outside to clear his head before he can finish it. Mr.Williamsport blessedly doesn’t question Izuku’s actions. As the green haired boy stands on the edge of the cement patio, staring into the distance, he swears (not for the first time and not for the last) that he’s never going to use his quirk ever again.

As it happens, fate has other plans.

...

Izuku isn’t sure when he realizes something is wrong. He arrives home around 4:00 pm after spending an hour helping his math teacher stack chairs to avoid Kacchan and his friends. It’s one of those blessed days when the blonde boy and his minions don’t wait around to see if they get to play another round of “catch the quirkless kid.” Izuku basks in the sun as he walks up to his door and revels in the feeling of being injury-free. The apartment block is quiet, as always. Izuku kicks off his shoes and heads directly to the kitchen to grab a snack, noting that his mother isn’t home yet.

As he’s scrounging through different kinds of fruit snacks in the cupboards, he hears a female voice that is distinctly not his mothers.

“Hey, where are your parents?”

Izuku flails and turns suddenly, only to be met by a very tall stranger. The woman is dressed in all white with black accents. Her face is covered by an ornate and traditional black mask that depicts a woman’s crying face. The skin on her hands and neck glisten an unnatural silver color. Everything about her screams villain. Izuku shrieks and tries to take off but he trips over himself and the woman quickly pins him to the floor, covering his mouth with one of her hands. Her fingers are firm, cold, and metallic tasting, signaling to Izuku that she has some kind of metal based skin. The force from her hand slams his head backwards into the cabinet, it finally hits Izuku that there’s a villain standing in his kitchen.

 _Technically there are two villains_ , the self-deprecating voice in Izuku’s head whispers, but he pushes it away.

“Listen, I do not want to hurt a little kid” The villain sounds almost sorry, which would come as a shock to Izuku if he wasn’t currently about to pass out from fear (and possibly oxygen deprivation).

Her face- mask- is close enough to his that he can see the silk ribbon threaded to each side holding it tightly to her face. Before reality sets in again Izuku finds himself wondering if the mask would be an inconvenience, sliding around and coming off during a fight, or if there’s something else holding it up.

“Do not scream. Tell me who lives here. Do you have parents? An older brother or sister?”

She slowly releases Izuku’s mouth. He considers screaming, maybe one of his neighbors would come and check on him. But if the villain kills one of his neighbors, it would be Izuku’s fault. What if the nice, elderly landlady who’s trying to get the playground equipment fixed comes to check on him? What if it’s Mr. Williamsport? Izuku doesn’t think he can handle another death in his conscience.

So instead he whimpers out, “Just my mom and me live here.”

“Huh.” the villainess grunts, leaning back on her heels. “That makes it easy. Where is your mother?”

“I don’t know!” At this, the woman relaxes her grip a little. Izuku tries to run the minute she takes her weight off of him, but his small frame is no match against an adult.

“Hey, cut it out kid!” The woman shakes him roughly and the force of her metal arms slamming against his stomach knocks the wind out of Izuku’s lungs. He struggles hopelessly for a couple of seconds before going limp. The woman lets him drop to the floor and pull in gasping breaths of air as he attempts to breath around the pain in his chest.

“W-Why?“ The woman tilts her head, assessing the boy from behind her mask.

She glances around the apartment before asking, “When’s your mom getting back?”

“She comes home around five, five, uh- Five thirty sometimes.” Izuku wants to suppress the stutter but he can’t even stop tears from rolling down his cheeks.

He’s pathetic and he’s going to die here without ever seeing his mom ever again. What could this awful villain want with his mom?

He must have been muttering his thoughts out loud again because the woman responds brusquely, “Your mother killed someone very important to me. I’m here to… honor their memory. As cliche as that may seem.”

Izuku is floored. Inko Midoroya? His mom? A killer? The thought is incomprehensible to him; anyone that knows Inko Midoriya knows she would never willingly hurt another living being in her life. She’s the kind of person who has to call the neighbors over to kill a mouse and then feels bad about it afterwards!

Izuku explains as much to the villainess, but she shakes her head, responding, ”No, my informant is quite sure my husband’s killer lives here. The information came from their quirk. They are incredibly skilled at finding things. Including murderers.”

“Your informant is wrong!” Izuku screams.

The villainess quickly shushes Izuku with another hand over his mouth, not letting go until the boy stops screaming and whimpering.

“No. I’m quite sure this is the correct apartment. My informant assured me the Heart Attack Killer resides here.”

Izuku freezes. The villain must take it as shock or confusion, because she releases him gently.

“I’m sorry.” She whispers. “I know you love your mom, but she is a bad person. She has killed a lot of people and she might kill more. She can’t be allowed to live.”

Izuku shakily gets to his feet, finally understanding what’s happening. The villainess glances at the trembling boy, decides he's not a going to be a problem, and allows him to rise to his feet. Meanwhile izuku's brain is working overdrive. Which hero did he kill to bring this upon himself? She mentioned it was her husband Izuku murdered, how many of the heroes in his journal were married? He isn’t sure. All he knows is that his awful, villainous quirk is going to cause another death soon, and this time it will be his own mother's. After all, who would assume that a child could be the nefarious Heart Attack Killer?

“Breathe, child. Listen to me; I won't hurt you"

Izuku is only partially aware that the villain is helping him through his meltdown. A flicker of hope ignites in his chest. Maybe the villain isn't that mean of a person. Maybe she can be reasoned with.

"Do you know why your mom does it?” She asks.

Izuku inhales deeply as he attempts to regulate his breath. He inhales again and feels the dizziness lessen. The woman pats his shoulder gently and Izuku realizes he has to play along. If he wants to survive this, and save his mother, he has to be smart.

“No, but umm, there’s a book. It has names in it.”

The villainess perks up a bit at this. “Names of people that have died?”

“Yeah. Heroes.” Izuku whispers. “I’ll show you.”

He leads her into his bedroom. He can’t tell if she looks suspicious behind her mask, but she doesn’t stop him so he hopes she’s lulled into a false sense of trust by his timidness. He goes straight to his mattress and pulls out the cursed notebook. The woman stands in the doorway, waiting. Carefully, he flips through the pages, pocketing a pen off of his desk. The woman notices and Izuku flinches, but the metal skinned woman doesn’t seem to register it as a threat and she doesn’t stop him. Izuku racks his brain as he flips through the pages. If he can figure out who the woman’s spouse was, maybe he can figure out her name. There’s no way she could stop him before he finishes writing, and why would she? To her, he’s just an innocent in all of this, she has no way of knowing Izuku could kill her in seconds. The woman watches silently over Izuku’s shoulder as he turns through the pages.

“It looks like she keeps a damn trophy for every kill.” The woman growls, the violence in her voice promising terrifying things Izuku is trying not to think about.

Instead, Izuku desperately tries to remember as much as he can about the families of his victims. None of them had the blatantly obvious metallic-skin quirk, so it must be voluntary. The villainess probably looks completely normal when her quirk isn’t activated.

_I’m here to… honor their memory._

The woman’s words replay in Izuku’s mind and strike a similar chord to something he heard not too long ago.

_I want my husband to be remembered... he deserves to have his legacy honored._

Izuku furtively glances up at the villainess. She’s standing stock still, and with the mask and the white robes, she looks a bit like a ghost, but there’s no denying that her body type and hair length are similar. Izuku turns to the page on Kenji Nara. The woman breathes in sharply, reaching out to trace her husband’s name. Then she stills.

“These letters are messy… an adult did not write this.”

Izuku grips the pen tightly, heart beating fast. A few strokes of the pen is all it would take- her name was all over the news after her husband’s death and Izuku knows it intimately after the amount of controversial articles he read about her. His window of opportunity is rapidly closing. Yet Izuku’s promise to never use his quirk rings loud in his mind, keeping his hand from delivering the death blow. He can’t let his mother take the blame for his crimes, but he has to honor the promise he made himself as well. There’s only one choice he can make, he realizes. Tell the truth. He hopes that Mrs. Nara doesn’t leave his body in his room for his mother to find.

But before Izuku can open his mouth and finally confess his crimes, a different voice rings through the apartment.

“Izuku, sweetie? Are you here?”

Mrs.Nara’s head snaps up and she leaves Izuku and stalks back into the living area. Izuku is in shock, or at least he thinks it's shock. He feels kinda like he’s in pain but he also feels nothing at all because there’s nothing physically wrong with him but he just can’t make those two facts mesh in his brain. His feet are glued to the floor but his mind is moving a thousand miles and hour. Mom wasn’t supposed to be home this early, and now Mrs. Nara is going to kill his mom and it will be all his fault because he was selfish and let the villainess believe hismomistheHeartAttackKiller-

Inko’s scream cuts through the air and Izuku’s body is moving before the rest of him can catch up.

“Stop!” He yells as he races into the living area.

Mrs. Nara is standing over Inko, pinning the smaller woman to the ground with a single foot.

Inko’s face is bright red as she sobs out, “Where’s Izuku?! What did you do to him?!”

Mrs. Nara is oddly silent, and she doesn’t let up on Inko but she does chance a glance at Izuku over her shoulder. He takes in her foot planted on his mom’s chest and feels fear, cold and all-encompassing, rise in his chest.

“Run, Izuku. Please. I love you. Please run.” His mom is begging now, but not for her own life.

“Sorry mom.” He mutters back, then loudly, “She didn’t write those names. I did! Air Warrior was your husband, right? It’s all my fault! Leave mom alone!”

The villainess makes eye contact with Izuku through the mask, and he thinks he sees surprise in her gaze and for a second Izuku is relieved. She’s going to kill him now, in front of his mother nonetheless, but Inko should be safe.

Then Mrs. Nara says, “Do not try to be a hero.”

She says it regretfully, her voice breaking on the word “hero,” and Izuku’s heart breaks in turn as he watches Mrs. Nara raise her metal foot and stomp down hard on Inko’s chest. There's a flash of red and a loud crack as metal sinks easily through Inko's ribs. The world doesn’t slowly lapse into slow motion, like in the books or movies when something really dramatic occurs. If anything, time seems to speed up. Izuku launches himself across the room, and hits the villainess right when she’s raising her foot in the air for another stomp. Izuku pushes her off balance and she crashes to the floor, her metallic skin ringing loudly as it impacts the tile.

“Kenji Nara died on a Saturday! It was 9:03 in the evening when I killed him!” Izuku remembers writing the Air Warrior entry, he was about to go to bed when he started the entry in his notebook.

Mrs.Nara laughs incredulously from the ground. “Nobody knows his exact time of death except for me and the emergency workers.” Her voice shakes quietly. “Everyone watches that stupid video online and thinks he was still fighting the grim reaper when we got to the hospital. He really died sleeping on the couch, half an hour earlier… at exactly 9:03. He was already gone. We were rushing because they thought the doctor’s might be able to restart his heart.”

Izuku isn't listening to her monologue. He's staring at his mother, pale and splattered with red, white shards of bone sticking up from the gaping cavity in her chest. She's making little jerky motions with her hand, and he realizes that she's reaching for him. A gurgle in her throat sends both terror and relief coursing through him. She's trying to say something but Izuku can't understand what. He reaches forward (to help her? to check for a pulse?) but he doesn’t get the chance to do either because in a flash Mrs. Nara goes from a heap on the ground to a desperate lunge for Izuku. It’s pure instinct for Izuku to dodge backwards as quickly as he can and then stumble out the front door of the apartment. Mrs.Nara follows and Izuku is consumed with the need to escape, to get the threat away from his mother and himself as fast as he can. He streaks past the apartment and barrels into the playground, the familiar turf a comfort to him and a possible trip-up to his pursuer. He’d half hoped that Ms. Nara’s metal-like quirk would weigh her down, metal is supposed to be heavy, right?

_How else could she have stomped through Inko's chest so easily?_

He pushes the voice away because right now he has to focus on surviving long enough that he can get to a phone and call for help. With a plan half forming in his mind, Izuku shoves the notebook and pen, clutched in his sweaty palm the whole time, between his teeth and starts climbing the derelict playground structure. He grips the plastic and cement and hauls himself up with practiced ease. The playfort shudders as Mrs. Nara follows suit. Izuku doesn’t stop to look back or think or worry- he can’t afford to.

Hand.

Foot.

Hand.

He focuses solely on climbing as speedily and as high as possible. It’s a strange parallel to normal life- a mother and a son playing chase on a playground in the sun. Even though he’s climbed the fort a hundred times before, his body is slick with exertion and fear by the time he reaches the top. Ms. Nara, halfway up the fort, curses as her foot slips and one of the play structure’s supports snaps, making the entire fort groan and creak. Izuku's heart skips a beat as he feels the massive structure sway slightly. Sitting on top of the playfort used to make Izuku feel like he had just climbed Mount Everest, but now the boy realizes that his perch can’t be more than 8 meters off the ground.

He’s cornered himself, but he's also bought himself time.

Hastily, he hooks a foot around a metal pole to free up his hands. He grabs the journal from his mouth and hesitates as he flips to a fresh page. Can he really do this? Can he knowingly kill another living human being? Mrs. Nara shakes the play structure with a grunt, pulling herself higher, and the sudden movement causes Izuku to fumble with the pen, nearly dropping it in the process. Before he can hesitate further, he thinks about his mom, how he probably won't ever know what her last words were. How his last memory of her is going to be a puddle of blood on his kitchen floor. With heart beating so quickly it feels like a hummingbird trapped in his chest, Izuku writes down the villain's name. Nothing happens immediately and Izuku nearly starts crying again. Seconds tick away and Izuku peers over the edge of the playfort.

He meets Mrs. Nara’s eyes. “I’m sorry.” He whimpers. “I didn’t know.”

“That doesn't make everything better!” she yells and it’s the first time Izuku has heard her raise her voice. “You don’t deserve to live for what you’ve-”

Her entire body shudders and then freezes up. The convulsions shake the already precarious structure and another support snaps.

“-done.”

There’s a moment of weightless when Izuku is falling, journal in hand, and he sees Mrs. Nara’s body. As the milliseconds march forwards, Izuku becomes keenly aware of everything around him. He and Mrs. Nara are both falling. He was right earlier, about the ribbon being the only thing holding the mask up because the fabric has snapped, revealing her beautiful, solemn features, the gilded silver receding slowly as her life and her quirk fades away. Her expression isn’t angry or sad. She just looks empty. Izuku wouldn’t describe her as a pretty, fragile doll. Suspended in mid-air, her lifeless body half dipped in liquid silver, she looks like a sculpture- a work of modern art. The playfort is crumbling around them as they fall and Izuku can’t help but laugh internally. In the end, it’s going to be a dilapidated play structure, not a villain, that kills him and oh- there’s the slow motion moment he was thinking about earlier.

Apparently the books and movies were more accurate than he thought.

Izuku hits the ground and everything goes dark.

…

He’s aware that he’s in pain. Even though everything is dark and sort of blurry, with the sound fading in and out, Izuku is aware of the agony he’s in. He can’t move, and at first he thinks the cause is the incredible pain in his legs, but as awareness slowly filters back to him he realizes he’s trapped underneath the crumpled playfort, which is blocking out his field of view completely. His face is wet and dripping with liquid but he only tastes salt and not the coppery undertone of blood, so he supposes he has that going for him.

Suddenly he remembers his mother in their apartment, for all he knows she could be still be alive! He needs to get her help! He tries to struggle forward, bracing his hands against the ground to push himself up, but the concrete and plastic mess groans warningly. Izuku freezes. He can’t see because the large and heavy object above him that’s pinning his legs to the ground is also blocking out the sun’s rays. He can’t risk the structure collapsing and killing him, but he has to get to his mother! He doesn’t know how badly the villain injured her- she could be dying from internal bleeding while Izuku waits for rescue only a few meters outside their apartment. Even worse, Mrs. Nara might have survived somehow. She could come back and finish the job while Izuku is trapped and helpless.

The green-haired boy is ripped from his thoughts as a fresh wave of pain lances through his legs. He cries out in pain and the yell turns into a half sob. He can feel the angry mass of swirling emotions and helplessness that normally accompanies a meltdown building up in his chest. No, not now! Izuku can’t afford to be even more scared and useless, not while his mother needs saving. Despite his feeble attempt at pushing back his emotions, Izuku is wracked with massive sobs that send his body shuddering, causing his injuries to flare up in a vicious cycle. Now that he’s alone and the immediate danger is gone, all the emotions that he had ignored while talking to the villain (while watching his mother bleed on the floor) return to him ten fold. Then, in the midst of the panic and the darkness, he hears the sweetest sound he could have ever hoped to hear.

“Thought you could escape me huh, Deku? Well guess what, I know where you- EH! WHAT THE HELL?!”

“KACCHAN!” Izuku screams “HELP!”

There are hurried footsteps and then the sound of small hands scrabbling at plastic and metal and then, “Deku are you under there? Izuku?”

“Kacchan there was a villain! You have to call the police! and an ambulance!”

“What? Where is he? I can take him!”

Even trapped under concrete Izuku can hear the determination in Katsuki’s voice. Izuku winces at the thought of Kacchan leaving to chase some villain while his mother bleeds out. Izuku tries a different tactic.

“No Kacchan, my mom is hurt really really bad and I can’t move my legs! Please call the police so they can take us to a hospital!” Izuku hopes there is still enough left of his best friend who wanted to be a hero more than anything as he yells out, “I need you to save me, Kacchan!”

There’s no response from the blonde boy.

“Kacchan, Katsuki, please help me! Leave the villain! Save my mom!”

Izuku isn’t sure how long he screams into the silence for Bakugou to save his mother. He knows it can’t have been more than minutes, but it feels like hours pass as he cries out for Kacchan, and then a hero, and then anybody to save him.

In the end, the landlady saves him. She’s returning home from a grocery trip when she hears Izuku’s hoarse sobs and immediately dials the police.

“My m-m-mom, she’s really hurt-”

“It’s alright, honey, the paramedics are on their way here. They’re gonna take care of you both.”

There are more voices now, and even if he can’t see them he feels a bit of relief that there are more people around now. When sirens join the cacophony of noise Izuku feels like crying of happiness but all of his tears are spent.

“Hello? Are you alright?” A kind, masculine voice calls out to Izuku. "My name is officer Tsukauchi. I’m here to help.”

“My mom is still in the apartment! I think the villain really hurt her! Please, she could be dying! You have to save her!” Izuku remembers that he isn't sure if Mrs. Nara really died from Izuku’s writing of her name or if she's still out there. “The villain- um v-villain is a lady in white and black, she has a mask and some sort of metal skin quirk!”

“Hey, don’t worry about that okay? We’re going to make sure you and your mom are safe first. Your name’s Midoriya, right? Are you injured?” Officer Tsukauchi’s voice is a calming presence, cutting through Izuku’s anxiety.

“Um, my legs are stuck under something. I can’t move them but they hurt really bad. I can’t get out.”

Before Izuku can start panicking again Tsukauchi’s soothing voice reassures him, “It’s alright, Midoriya. I’m not gonna lie, that makes things a little bit harder for us. Lucky for you, I know some amazing rescue heroes who are on their way right now to help you out.“

“Will they help my mom first?”

“Medical professionals are here right now. They just carried a woman with green hair into an ambulance.”

"was- uh, was, was, she-"

"They're calling the best healing quirks in the business right now. They wouldn't be doing that if she wasn't alive."

Izuku realizes he does have a few more tears to spend. Tsukauchi talks with him through the rubble until rescue heroes arrive to carefully dismantle the mess of concrete and plastic. When Izuku is finally pulled from the wreckage of the playground, Bakugou is nowhere to be found.

...

Izuku goes to the hospital first, and despite his desperate requests, they don't let him see his mom. Instead they rush him to his own room and check him over. Izuku was actually spared the worst of the structural collapse since he was sitting near the top when it fell. The large cement and plastic roof fell on top of him, banging up his legs, but it could have been much worse. It looks rough at first because of all the blood and bruises, but the doctors reassure him that after a couple of months in a wheelchair, and then a month on crutches, his bruised and broken legs will heal up nicely. After the doctors tell him it’s alright to move around in his wheelchair, the police come to get his statement.

“Did this woman attack you and your mom?”

One of the policemen is holding up a picture of Mrs. Nara. Izuku feels nauseous but too tired to meltdown, so instead he just nods. Izuku has never met the first officer before, but he reckognizes the second as officer Tsukauchi, the one who waited and talked with him while he was trapped in the rubble.

“Was anyone else with her?”

“No.” Izuku says.

“Did you or your mom know her?”

Izuku is silent, not sure how to answer the question. Tsukauchi gives him an encouraging smile.

“It’s alright,” he promises, “You’re doing great, Midoriya.”

“No. um, I mean, I saw her on television but I never met her before.”

“Do you know why she tried to kill your mom?”

Izuku breaks into sobs. The officers share a slightly frustrated look with each other but they don’t want to harshly question a child who’s so obviously undergone extreme trauma. They tell him it’s alright and that they’ll get back to him in the future- what really matters is that the villain isn’t going to hurt any innocent people any more. They inform him that they plan to wait for his mom to wake up, or until he’s comfortable sharing with them, to discover everything that occurred during the villain attack. Izuku isn’t sure when either of those things will happen.

He finally visits his mom in the hospital. The doctors say a lot of big words but the ones Izuku understands are “induced coma” and “potentially life threatening” and “permanent damage.” His mom looks different, lying in the hospital bed. She’s wearing a weird paper dress instead of the comfortable sweaters and skirts she prefers. Her face is very still and pale, nothing like the animated, smiling woman she usually is. The room is a nice cream color and there is even a vase of flowers on the side table and a stuffed chair in a brown and beige print. Izuku can’t help but to think that the warm tones make his mother look even paler.

...

The media eats up the story- the widow of a popular hero driven insane with grief only to become a villain herself. Except in Izuku’s mind, she was never really the villain. She may have hurt his mother, but it was only because Izuku led her to believe that his mother was the Heart Attack Killer. In a way, Mrs. Nara never tried to hurt anybody who she thought was innocent, after all, she left Inko alone after Izuku’s confession, sparing his mother’s life. If Izuku had confessed to her a minute earlier, she probably would have left his mother alone. All she wanted was justice for her husband- to honor his memory. She wasn’t “insane with grief,” she’d come closer to catching the Heart Attack Killer than any hero or police officer.

It was all Izuku's fault.

A couple of days after the whole ordeal, while Izuku is waiting quietly in his mom's hospital room, Officer Tsukauchi brings him a newspaper with an article about the villain attack. It has a picture of Mrs. Nara, smiling and laughing with her husband. The article claims she died from the rubble collapsing on top of her, a piece of rebar straight through her head. Izuku is simultaneously relieved but guilty. The coroner must have assumed the impalement was the cause of her death. he wonders if anyone thought to check Mrs. nara's heart for sign's of a heart attack.

Izuku sets the article down on the side table and grasps his mom’s hand. Her hands are the only thing about her that’s stayed the same. They’re still soft and warm and as he strokes her wrist he can feel her heartbeat. Tsukauchi tries to fill up the silence of the hospital room.

“I understand feeling helpless.” He murmurs gently. “My quirk is no good for combat, when faced with a situation like yours, I would have had to run too.”

Izuku doesn’t tell Tsukauchi that he feels angry, not helpless. If only he had written Mrs. Nara's name down a little sooner, maybe his mother would be smiling right now, squeezing his hand back. He’s angry at himself, at his hesitation, at his foolish, naive promises. Villain or not, he’d trade Mrs. Nara’s life for his mom’s smile any day. As his eyes coast over the newspaper clipping about the woman who nearly killed both him and his mother, Izuku has an epiphany. His quirk is cursed. To pretend otherwise- to attempt to live a normal life- will only bring death and destruction. But maybe Izuku can pick and choose just who lives and who dies. He wasn't able to save his mom, but what if his mother never needed saving in the first place?

He may not be able to save people, but that's okay.

He can use his ability to hurt, he realizes- to hurt those that truly deserve it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I saw this post online that said a good writer doesn’t spend too much time on their backstory and I was like “BRUH I’VE GOT 70 PAGES AND AN ART PIECE I DREW WHILE I HAD WRITER’S BLOCK” (EDIT, I moved the art piece to the end of the chapter because I felt it was breaking up the flow of the writing)  
> Things may have gotten a little (a lot) out of hand.  
>   
> Don’t worry guys, we will be progressing the plot quite a bit and seeing a few more timeskips in the next chapter, and hopefully there will be less filler and more characters from the show.  
> Also, if you didn’t see the note at the beginning, please comment on ships you’d like to see! They can be main ships, side ships, no ships, fanon, cannon, I don’t care! I have some ideas but I want to know what your favorite bnha ships are!  
> Anyways, I’ll see you guys next week!


	5. Death Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Welp this ended up being a very filler-y chapter so I'm sorry for that. On the other hand, thank you for your input on ships! <3  
> warnings: Self-harm (an OC has a quirk that lets her regrow her limbs and she had a problem with cutting them off) bullying, panic and anxiety attacks

Despite Izuku’s realization, he can't exactly run around killing villains. There are police officers at his house (or rather the Bakugou’s house, Mitsuki had invited Izuku to stay with them temporarily) everyday. And before Izuku can follow through with his plans to become a vigilante or villain or whatever category he falls under, he has to figure out where he’s going to stay. Izuku can’t live with his mom in the hospital, and the government isn’t about to let a six year old live alone. He has no living relatives, and while the Bakugou’s can host Izuku for a couple of weeks, after it’s clear that Inko isn’t getting better any time soon, Masaru drops him off at his new foster home.

Going to live in a foster home- it feels like a dream. Up to this point, Izuku's taken comfort in the familiarity of his surroundings. Ever since the incident, Kacchan has given him a lot of space, and Masaru and Mitsuki had been kind and understanding. Sure, he might have been staying with the Bakugou’s due to nightmarish circumstances, but Kacchan’s house and family were as familiar as his own despite his less-than-friendly relationship with the blonde haired boy But going to live with a foster family-literal strangers- felt a bit too dreamlike for Izuku to process.

They sit in the car for a moment before getting out. Not wanting to exit the backseat of the car just yet, Izuku clutches his belongings in his hands and asks why he can’t stay with the Bakugous.

“It’s complicated.” Masaru sighs softly, “This foster home is temporary, just until your mom can take care of you again.”

The house looks nice enough, it’s white with two stories and little flower pots hanging from the front windows. There’s a pink scooter lying abandoned on the front lawn, evidence of other kids living in the house. Izuku had heard the lady who works his case explain that his unfortunate circumstances had pulled on the heartstrings of a well-off foster family that took in kids like him. Izuku’s not completely sure what she meant by “kids like him.” The case worker had given him a sympathetic smile and said something vague about kids who had a tougher time than usual. Izuku imagines a bunch of kids who were also victims in villain attacks.

That has to be what she means, right? Or is it possible that the police discovered his quirk? Perhaps they realized that he’s the one who killed Mrs. Nara and this “foster home” is merely a way to contain kids with dangerous quirks. The longer he stares out the car window, the more the innocent looking house begins to look like a prison.

“If you really want to stay with us, I’m sure Mitsuki would be happy to petition for custody until Inko gets better.” Masaru continues.

Izuku thinks of his life for the past months. Constant, emotionally draining visits to the hospital interspersed with hiding from Katsuki when he returned to the Bakugou household. Katsuki had been less aggressive with the amount of social workers and police officers that had been hanging around, but Izuku figured that it was only a matter of time until he snapped and went back to his old ways. 

“I guess not.” Izuku finally replies after a moment of silence.

Masaru “hmms” quietly, processing for a moment.

Izuku appreciates how quiet Bakugou’s dad is. The man is always thoughtful and gentle, a stark contrast to the brashness of his son and wife.

“I’m not sure when you and Katsuki had a falling out, or what it was about, but I’m sorry nobody noticed.”

Izuku snaps his head up to meet Masaru’s gaze. Adults have been apologizing to Izuku a lot lately. The doctors apologize to him about his mom, the police apologize about the villain attack, the rescue heroes apologize they hadn’t pulled him from the rubble faster; this is the first time anyone’s apologized for Bakugou’s behavior.

“Izuku, this might be hard, but I need you to tell me. Did Katsuki ever hit you? Use his quirk to give you those burns?” Masaru asks earnestly.

Izuku rubs his arms self-consciously. The scars are faint, but recognizable, especially to a member of the Bakugou household. Izuku would have worn long sleeves, but he didn’t exactly have a lot of clothing options due to all the moving around he had been doing in the past weeks. Izuku briefly considers telling the truth, but he doesn’t want to get Kacchan in trouble. Moreover, there’s fear in Masaru’s eyes, and Izuku knows that if he tells the truth, Kacchan’s parents will confront the explosive boy about it. Izuku guesses that the fear in Masaru’s eyes is a fear of having failed his son as a parent- Masaru and Mitsuki are good people and they’re trying their best. To tell them their fear is true, that their best wasn’t enough, would be cruel. He can’t hurt the Bakugou family like that, not after they did so much for him these past weeks.

Izuku lies.

“No. Some of the other kids at school bully me, but never Kacchan. We just got into a fight because I don’t want to be a hero anymore.”

Masaru doesn’t look relieved, but he does look slightly less fearful and doesn’t press any further.

“Let’s head inside.” He says, opening up the car door for Izuku and grabbing the boy’s bag.

…

Despite Izuku’s concern, the foster family is nice. Almost too nice. From what Masaru told him, the Noboru family is made up of a couple in their mid 30’s and several foster kids. A lack of biological children combined with two successful careers allow them to run this home for "emotionally damaged" kids (is that what the case worker meant?).

Namika Noboru is tall and friendly, but she looks a little like a model from a catalogue, the type you’d see in an advertisement for women’s business casual wear. She’s wearing a crisp two-piece pant suit and a big smile as she greets Izuku and Masaru at the door.

“Hey, you guys! Let’s get you settled in!”

She even sounds like what Izuku imagines a catalogue model would sound like. She chats with Masaru she gives them a tour of the house, which is also intimidatingly large and suspiciously well-kept for a house that has multiple children living in it.

“The kids get the upstairs bedrooms.” She explains, her voice chipper. ”There’s a really cool race car themed one we’ve been saving for you!”

The room is nice, if a bit smaller than the one he used to have. As promised, the walls sport a black and white pattern with different models of cars painted in vibrant colors. There’s a bunk bed that looks like it's been made recently. Mrs. Noboru smiles (technically she hasn’t stopped smiling) at Izuku as he carefully places his backpack at the foot of the bed.

“Normally you’d have to share, but the other kids figured you might want to have a room to yourself, at least for a little while.”

She leads them down the hall, pointing out the other rooms.

“How many kids do you have?” Masaru asks politely.

“Well, me and my wife- Yumi- are fostering three children right now, but we’re hoping to adopt our oldest.” With that, she raps sharply on the nearest door. “Speaking of, Akane, could you finish the tour for Izuku? I have to call the social worker and let them know he’s moving in today.”

A girl pokes her head out.

“Okay, mooooom.” She says with overdramatic emphasis on the last word.

Akane looks to be about fifteen, and is dressed in a pink Present Mic t-shirt and has hair that’s been bleached pale blond. She seems less put together and professional than Mrs. Noboru; she looks like a normal teenager with pink braces, the brightly colored graphic tee, and her hair pulled up into a messy bun. It sets Izuku at ease and he feels a little less like he’s stepped into some weird fashion magazine. Akane leads Izuku down the hallway and shows him where the bathroom is. It’s painted in cool pastels and the porcelain white counters match the fluffy towels that hang neatly in rows on the wall.

As the teen pulls a brand new toothbrush and miniature tube of toothpaste out of a cupboard she says nonchalantly, “So you're the quirkless kid who almost got murdered by a villain in his own house, right?”

Izuku stiffens. He wants Akane to like him, but he really doesn’t want to answer that question either.

Apparently his silence is enough of an answer, because she tells him, "We like to compare horror stories.”

“Do their horror stories usually involve watching a villain attempt to kill their only family right in front of them?” Izuku can’t help the bitterness out of his voice.

Akane shrugs, “I don’t know, I’ve heard some pretty bad ones. Everybody here has had shitty luck one way or another.”

Izuku startles. Somehow the curse is more shocking to him than anything that he’s seen yet today. Akane giggles at his wide eyes.

“Sorry. Don’t repeat that. My moms like to put on a show, like we’re some perfect family or something, but we’re people too.”

“Your moms?”

“Yeah, Namika and Yumi are trying to adopt me. Not that it’s actually gonna happen.”

“Do you… not want them to adopt you?” Izuku questions.

Mrs.Noboru seems nice, a bit fake, but welcoming. Could she be a completely different person beneath the picture perfect demeanor?

“No no, I’d love for them to adopt me. They’re great people.” Akane insists, handing Izuku a new towel. “I mean, Namika is a bit controlling and Yumi’s kind of a perfectionist, but I love them to death. I consider them my moms already since they’ve basically raised me.”

“Then why did you say that?” Izuku hangs up his towel on one of the empty hooks

“Like I said. We’ve all got horror stories.” Akane snickers, leading him out of the bathroom and back down the hall.

…

Izuku quickly finds out how the house stays so clean. There’s an extensive chore regimen that everyone in the house is expected to adhere to. Namika tells him that he can have his first day off, and Akane groans longingly and tells him he shouldn’t expect any more of this in the future before heading off to sweep and mop. After Masaru leaves, Izuku spends the first day sitting in the race car room, looking over the Notebook. Izuku brought it with him to the Noboru’s, of course. It had been the first thing he had retrieved from the wreckage of the playground structure after it collapsed on him. Luckily, none of the police officers investigating the scene had taken it as anything more than a token of a child’s hero worship.

The smartest thing to do would be to destroy it and erase the evidence that would link him to so many deaths. Izuku can’t do it. He’s forged a connection with it, and some part of him (his quirk maybe?) tells him that trying to get rid of it would be a bad idea. It’s counterintuitive, but it becomes a comforting weight in his jacket pocket. He doesn’t let it leave his person now, too afraid that someone might find it, put two and two together and start asking questions he doesn’t know how to answer. Even worse, something about the idea of a random stranger coming across the Notebook... Izuku can’t help but imagine a kid, perhaps a student stumbling across his Notebook on their way to school and using it to- Izuku stops the scenario in his mind before it can progress any further. That would be impossible. It’s just a notebook, after all- his quirk is the thing doing all of the real work.

That first night, Izuku meets the other Mrs. Noboru- Yumi- as well as the rest of the kids in the household. Namika asks Izuku to come down to the living room and introduce himself. Yumi is compact and curvy, a contrast to the thin, tall elegance of her partner. Yumi is even more friendly and smiley than Namika, if such a thing is possible. When she first meets Izuku, she asks him if she can hug him. When Izuku shyly agrees, she scoops him up in a warm embrace and Izuku cries just a little.

“Nice- Nice to meet you, Mrs. Noboru.”

“Just call me Yumi!”

As they hold a meeting to officially introduce Izuku to everyone, she explains to Izuku about the tech start-up she and Namika run together. The work is mostly online, allowing them to work from home and supervise the kids. The woman seems very, very passionate about inventing and technology, but as the rest of the household occupants filter into the living room, Izuku is focused on the other kids, not her words. There’s Akane, steadfastly tapping away at her phone as she ignores Yumi’s excited ramblings about entrepreneurship. Next to the teenager is a toddler with long black hair that was introduced as Rei. The girl is gumming on a sippy cup, attempting to steal Akane’s phone. Every few minutes she makes a grab for it, and Akane pulls it out of her reach. The last kid is a boy Izuku’s age, his most notable feature being a shock of purple hair. He is introduced as Hitoshi, and immediately afterwards Yumi breaks from her rant on copyright registration to state how exciting it is that there’s another boy his age to play with.

Hitoshi doesn’t seem terribly excited.

Izuku tries to make eye contact with him, but the boy shyly avoids his gaze, choosing to fixate on Yumi instead. The grin on Yumi’s face lessens slightly as she ruffles Hitoshi’s hair gently. The sight makes Izuku’s heart ache for his own mother,but he continues smiling through introductions anyways. After fifteen minutes of Yumi talking about the other kids, and then the house rules, and then her job, Namika finally steps in and lets the kids know they can head to bed.

“I’m sorry, guys, I just ramble on and on, don’t I? Izuku, do you need help getting ready for bed?” Yumi offers.

Izuku shakes his head, and the couple seem to recognize it as a silent request to be left alone. It’s been a long day full of new faces and Izuku isn’t quite sure where he fits into the household dynamic yet and he hates every awkward second of it.Not to mention he still feels a little like he’s in a dream. All he wants at the moment is to sink into bed and enjoy being unaware of his problems for a few hours. Except once Izuku gets upstairs, he’s pulled unwillingly into Akane’s room. Posters cover the walls, laundry is strewn about the floor, there’s a desk and a vanity both covered with homework, books, stuffed animals, and other trinkets Izuku expects he’d find in a teenager’s room. Shinsou and Rei are already sitting on the floor in the center of the room, looking just as unenthusiastic.

“Alright.” whispers Akane, “Now it’s time to get to that gossip session I mentioned earlier.”

“Gossip session?” Mumbles Izuku, still thinking about crawling into bed and overwhelmed with the events of the day.

“I mean the horror stories!”

“Storytime!” Rei chirps brightly.

“I don’t want to.” Hitoshi complains. 

It’s the first thing Izuku has heard him say.

“Oh come on, Shin, don’t you want to find out how screwed up the new kid is?” Then to Izuku, “How did you get those burn scars on your arms? I bet that’s a good story!”

Akane stares at Izuku expectantly, and for once Izuku’s mind grinds to a halt and all he can manage is a blank stare.

“Alright fine, I’ll go first.” She says after a moment's pause. “Hi! My name’s Akane and my quirk is limb regrowth! I can grow back any part of my body that’s been cut off! But my quirk has this weird thing where whenever I get slightly injured I get this indescribable urge to hack the body part off so it can grow back! When my quirk first manifested, I chopped off an entire hand because of a splinter! Apparently I traumatized my own mom so much that she kicked me to the curb, which is how I ended up in the system.”

Akane sounds almost gleeful- proud even- as she tells her story to a horrified Izuku. When the social worker has mentioned “kids like him,” apparently she had meant kids that were literally insane. He’s not sure how he should react, the other two kids are acting like this is normal, so he doesn’t say anything and lets Akane continue to talk.

“I bounced around a little because people found it super creepy that I would just hack off my own fingers and stuff. Basically no one wanted me. But then I ended up with the Noboru’s and they’ve been super nice and they don’t freak out if I’m down an arm or a leg. But because I'm a risk to my own health or whatever they're having a really hard time adopting me. The social worker is mad that they can't get me to stop removing my limbs completely, but honestly i'm so much better now than I was before- I haven't cut off anything as big as an arm in ages.”

She finishes the story with a giggle and suddenly she doesn’t seem so much like a normal teenager anymore.

“Uhh…I- Im- I’m sorry. Your quirk seems useful. I mean, i'm not sorry that your quirk is useful, I'm sorry about the other-other-other stuff.” Izuku manages to stutter eloquently.

“Yes, that’s it! That’s the look people would give me right before they kicked me out of their home.” Akane says, pointing at Izuku’s wide eyes.

The tension in the room is broken by Rei giggling and also lifting a hand to point at Izuku.

“People.” She states proudly before continuing to chew on her sippy cup.

“Ooh, and Rei’s quirk is awful too. She can make people forget things, but apparently the feeling is really addicting. She’s like a drug, but worse. It’s why she has to wear that bracelet all the time. It's a supressor.” Akane continues.

Izuku hadn’t noticed before, but Rei has a thin silver circlet around her wrist.

“No one knows anything about her family, probably because she accidentally erased their memories. It’s kinda sad to think that maybe she has a family out there that really cares, but they just forget about her completely.”

Izuku nods. He’s seriously re-evaluating his own life so far. Sure, accidentally killing a bunch of heroes and being attacked by a villain is bad, but at least his mom is alive and still cares about him.

“The Noborus don’t just take in normal kids- they take in kids that are seriously messed up, the ones nobody else wants. So how messed up are you, Izuku?” Akane asks curiously and perhaps a bit too eagerly.

Does the teen see this like some sort of competition? Izuku almost wants to tell them about his quirk. Half for the schock value, and half because… well...maybe they would understand. Izuku stops the stray thought and zips his lips shut. As crazy as Akane is, the Noboru’s are nice. If Izuku told them about his quirk, he would probably get sent somewhere much much worse. Luckily, a comment from the other boy saves him from having to respond.

“Akane you’re being creepy again.” Hitoshi huffs.

“Fine.” She looks a bit annoyed at being called out. “Tell him about your freaky villain quirk, Shin”

“My name is Hitoshi Shinsou. Don’t call me Shin, and don’t tell him about my quirk.” The purple haired boy announces before getting up and leaving the room. Izuku seizes the opportunity to escape as well. He apologizes to an annoyed Akane and darts back to the race car room. He falls onto the bunk bed without unpacking his bag and dreams about being able to share his quirk with the others.

…

Izuku begins to acclimate to life with the Noborus. It turns out the two women are as kind and friendly in the long term as they were on the first day, if a little strict. They run a tight schedule, so he barely has time to think about his quirk, but it’s almost kind of nice. It’s not the adults Izuku has to be worried about. The other kids however, live up to Akane’s words of “messed up.” Izuku feels like the only sane one half the time. Akane is prone to chopping off fingers in fits of anger. He’s terrified the first time she does it, but afterwards she assures him she doesn’t feel the pain, just a tingling when the digit comes off. And despite the fact that Akane is a terrifying, hormonal force of nature, she’s overly wary of the purple haired boy, which confuses Izuku. Shinsou (as Izuku had learned he preferred to be called) alternates between shy and hostile, without ever really opening up to the green-haired boy. Izuku still isn’t sure what Shinsou’s quirk is, only that it is not a good topic to bring up with him. The first time Izuku asks him about it, Shinsou goes completely cold and sneers at Izuku, “You wouldn’t understand, quirkless,” before shutting himself in his room the rest of the day. Rei is three and possibly has some form of short-term amnesia caused by her own quirk (it’s just a theory but Izuku thinks it would explain a lot), so she doesn’t count as sane because there’s not enough of her there to count.

Meanwhile, Izuku settles into a new school- the same one that Hitoshi and Rei go to. Although he walks with the boy in the mornings, they don’t share a class. Izuku’s not sure if that’s a curse or a blessing; it’d be nice to know someone, even if that someone ignored Izuku most of the time and was unreasonably stand-offish. When Izuku finally does discover Shinsou’s quirk it’s practically by accident. After school, the two boys usually meet up to walk in silence back to Noboru house. Yet on this particular Tuesday afternoon, Shinsou isn’t showing up. Izuku waits for ten minutes before he goes off in search of the purple-haired boy. He checks around the classrooms, but Shinsou isn’t there. He’s considering going to the playground to wait when he catches sight of two figures in the distance, standing in the middle of the baseball field. The distance is too far to make out any voices, but Izuku thinks he recognizes the slouched posture and bright purple hair. It only takes a couple of minutes of jogging towards them before Izuku hears all-too-familiar words carry across the field.

“Hey freak! What’s the matter, ain’t gonna fight back?”

Shinsou is almost bent over, clutching at his stomach, while a much bigger boy-probably a middle schooler- idly swings at him. From the way Shinsou moves with the blows, only letting out soft grunts, Izuku can tell that he’s well experienced in the fine art of taking a beating. Izuku used to do the same thing with Bakugou, after all.

“Come on, use your creepy quirk, you villain-”

Then the bully is tipping over because Izuku’s tiny figure has just barreled into him at full force. Izuku is smaller, but he uses that to his advantage, knocking the gangly middle school bully off of his center of gravity. Except the bully is back on his feet quickly, and now Izuku has his attention.

“What the hell?” The bully asks, wiping the dirt off of his face as Izuku scrambles back, heart pounding. “So you’re the new foster freak.”

The bully laughs menacingly. He raises a fist, presumably to bash Izuku with, but then Shinsou is there, still clutching at his stomach but standing protectively in front of Izuku.

“Leave him alone.” Shinsou coughs.

“I’ll get back to you later weird-”

“Go to the parking lot. Call you parents and ask them to pick you up.” Shinsou says- no, commands.

Izuku is convinced the bully is going to kill both of them, right there on home base. Instead, the bully goes slack, his limbs relaxing and his face glazing over. The bully staggers off and Shinsou collapses in the dirt next to Izuku.

“That’s my quirk.” He groans out. “Brainwashing people.”

Izuku feels tears running down his face in a belated emotional response. He’s not sure if he’s crying because he’s relieved or because a meltdown is imminent. He tries to focus on something other than the feeling of anxiety building up in his chest and turns to Shinsou. The boy isn’t meeting Izuku’s eyes, but Izuku has heard enough to guess that the emotion on his face is probably a mix of anger and self-loathing. Izuku wasn’t able to stop the bully. But he can do one thing. He pushes through the mess of his own emotions and pastes a grateful smile on his face.

“That was amazing, Shinsou.”

“What?” The confusion and doubt in Shinsou’s voice is almost painful.

“You saved me. Thank you so much.”

“I guess.” Shinsou admits slowly, daring to meet Izuku’s eyes. “You don’t think my quirk is villainous?”

“Not at all, you just stopped that bully without ever laying a hand on him! Think of all the things you could do with it, you could stop a hostage citation or a robbery in progress with a few words faster than any pro hero could with a fight- you’d be an amazing hero!” The smile on Izuku’s face starts to feel a little more real as he actually begins to get excited, analysing Shinsou’s quirk.

“It could also be used to hurt people.” Shinsou points out.

“But I don’t think you would use it for that! You didn’t even hurt that guy after he beat you up, you just made him leave.”

Shinsou still looks angry, so Izuku follows up with an apology.

“Sorry for rushing in and making you use it if you aren’t that comfortable with it.”

“Nobody’s ever apologized for my own quirk before. I’m sorry I made fun of you for being quirkless.”

Izuku considers it a victory that his words have Shinsou looking a little less angry and a little more thoughtful. The apology (although unnecessary) is nice too. Then he looks around, noticing that they’re still sitting in a baseball field. The red dust is covering their entire uniforms- both of them had been on the ground at one point during the fight, and that reflects in the patches of red dust covering their knees and legs and butts.

“Namika is going to kill us for ruining our school uniforms.” Shinsou remarks, picking up a handful of the fine dust and letting it run through his fingers.

“Really? We almost got beat to a pulp and I finally found out about your quirk but that’s what you’re worried about?” Izuku asks incredulously.

“My quirk may be scary, but you haven’t seen Namika on a cleaning spree yet. That's way more terrifying.” Shinsou replies completely deadpan.

Maybe it’s not meant to be a joke, but the delivery is unexpected enough that Izuku breaks into a laugh at Shinsou’s disgusted, dirty face. After a couple seconds of Izuku’s giggling, Shinsou joins in as well, his chuckle turning into a full-belly laugh when Izuku accidentally snorts and gets a mouthful of dust up his nose. The two boys sit in the baseball field laughing and playing in the dirt until the baseball team shows up for practice and kicks them out.

...

Izuku is glad that he’s finally connected with Shinsou, and to be honest, he’s a bit jealous that Shinsou has such a cool quirk. The purple haired boy just gives him a questioning glance when Izuku tells him this and chalks it up to him being quirkless (Shinsou may have apologized but he’s still a bit blunt). Unfortunately, Izuku can’t exactly explain that he does have a quirk, and it’s a quirk that can only be used for one thing. He also can’t tell Shinsou about his plans to use said quirk to become a vigilante either. Not that Izuku has a lot of free time with which to pursue vigilantism- with school and cleaning and visits from the social worker once a week, Izuku is too swamped to even consider how he could go about using his quirk to help people. In addition, the Noborus keep a pretty tight watch on all of the kids because they both work from home.

The only time Izuku has to himself is after everyone goes to sleep. He sneaks into Akane’s room and steals her phone- a move pulled directly from Bakugou’s book. Akane always takes her meds before going to sleep because she falls asleep right afterwards. Izuku isn’t sure what the little orange pills are for. Namika just tells him that Akane sometimes needs special medicine to help her feel emotions the same way everyone else does, and that there’s nothing wrong or shameful about that. All Izuku cares about is that it gives him a window to access the internet unsupervised. He spends a lot of time on internet forums, learning about other vigilantes and underground heroes, which are much more similar than he thought. He even learns a bit about heroes like Snipe: the gunslinging hero who has a body count.

At first that raises Izuku’s spirits. If pro heroes have killed before, maybe he could be a hero with his cursed quirk after all. However, a quick overview of the Pro Hero wiki page shows that the hero only kills when absolutely necessary, often as a last resort. More importantly, Snipe has never killed any innocents. Izuku didn’t (doesn’t) want to kill innocents. He doesn’t even want to kill people in the morally grey area. If he’s going to use his quirk, it has to be on someone who really deserves it. The path of the pro hero is out of the picture for him. That leaves vigilantism, which in of itself is a morally grey area. It takes months of careful planning for Izuku to find someone who really deserves death but won’t raise too many alarms. Luckily, unlike other vigilantes he never even has to leave the house.

He chooses the target carefully. The criminal was arrested for murdering his wife and their two kids, but escaped custody using his stealth quirk. He killed one of the police officers that arrested him, and is currently making threats on killing the officers on the case, as well as his neighbor who reported him to the police in the first place. However, because of the stealth quirk that lets him camouflage himself perfectly, no one can find him. It makes Izuku sick to read the articles, and he’s convinced that he’s finally found someone he can kill without feeling bad about his quirk. He writes down the man’s full name on a Saturday night after he finishes sweeping the kitchen. Despite his care in choosing his target (victim?), he feels just as sick writing the man’s name as he did reading the articles. They don’t find his body for two weeks, and by then, it's decayed enough that the autopsy is difficult, and the cause of death is unclear. The families of the police officers and the villain's neighbors come out of hiding. They have a funeral for the officer that was murdered. Izuku feels unfulfilled. He'd thought that killing the villain would help him atone for his crimes, but instead he just feels like he hasn't done enough. There are still so many bad, awful people in the world. He can't rest until he's stopped them from hurting people ever again.

Izuku starts searching for another target, but he’s sidetracked by his quirk taking a startling change. He’s not sure what triggers it. Maybe it’s because he’s finally using his ability after spending so long repressing it. Maybe it’s because he actively sought out someone to kill. Maybe it’s just the awful state of his emotional health because Izuku can’t wear his suffering as a badge of pride like Akane, but he can’t hide it behind a mask of apathy like Shinsou, either. His tears are his way of dealing with emotions, and it's during a meltdown of all times that izuku accidentally activates a new part of his quirk. He’s panicking- and of all the stupid reasons its because someone called him quirkless. Even though he knows that the person is trying to make fun of him, he can’t help but wish he actually is quirkless and that’s what triggers the meltdown.

His meltdowns have gotten worse lately, and Yumi picks him up from school when the teacher calls with a complaint about the quirkless foster kid “crying for attention” again. He’s breathing very shallowly trying to focus past the nausea and the dizziness as Yumi guides him gently into her car and helps him lie down on the back seat in case he passes out from hyperventilating. He tries to imagine that Yumi is his mom and that everything is okay- it doesn’t work. As she offers what comfort she can by stroking his forehead and murmuring soft words, Izuku catches sight of something floating above her head. It’s words but... not words. Numbers but not numbers. He can read them but at the same time, he’s aware that the full extent of their meaning is beyond his comprehension. It’s as if a deep seated-sense that he hadn’t been aware of before has been awakened and now he’s using it for the very first time.

“Yumi Noboru, 59 years.” He mutters.

Yumi pets his forehead again. “What’s that?”

“You have 59 years left, Mrs. Noboru.”

Yumi jerks back involuntarily, her eyes meeting Izuku’s.

“Izuku, what does that mean?”

… 

Izuku can see the future- in the limited sense that pertains to death. Specifically, he can tell when people are going to die and how much time they have left before they pass. He calls the new ability Death Date. He realizes pretty quickly that he’s going to have to pass this off as his quirk because Yumi’s already seen him use it (well technically it is his quirk but he can pretend that this is the entire thing). A fairly large part of him wants to claim the quirk just for the sake of having a quirk. Shinsou may resent his quirk, but at least he has one in the first place. Izuku can’t help but want to claim a quirk as well.

Another part of Izuku recognizes that it’s a good strategy. Everyone expects the Heart Attack Killer to have a combative or stealth quirk. A minor foresight quirk could help Izuku distance himself from the murders, potentially even exonerating himself if anyone discovers his identity. Investigators might become suspicious of a quirkless boy because quirks can be hidden. But no one would ever expect the killer to be a boy with a harmless quirk like Death Date. This train of thought leads Izuku off on a tangent as he wonders just what his quirk is. Does he really have two separate quirks or just one? Is his quirk bigger than just killing people with a heart attack by writing down their name?

Mrs. and Mrs. Noboru are hesitant to believe him at first (Izukuis well past the age quirks normally manifest) but they’ve both seen plenty of cases of quirks appearing in children due to stress. They take him to the quirk registry and Izuku proudly adds his name and Death Date to the list. When they get back to the house, they throw an impromptu party to celebrate his quirk manifesting, even if it did show up several years late. Izuku thinks he should probably feel guilty about lying to them, but at the same time, the party is everything he’s ever wanted. There’s a homemade green cake (thanks to Yumi) that says ‘Congratulations on your quirk, Izuku!’ and everyone is smiling and laughing and congratulating him. Rei sits in her high chair like a throne, eating a tiny slice of the cake with messy hands.

Akane grins when he explains Death Date to her. “Congratulations on the quirk, Izuku, it sounds as creepy as heck.”

Before Izuku can even be offended by her offhand remark, she wraps him up in a tight hug, well as tight as she can get. She cut off a couple of her own fingers the day before and they’re still growing back as little nubs.

“I knew you’d fit in here perfectly.” She whispers.

He even demonstrates it for them by telling them about how much time Namika has left on her lifespan (53 years). Yumi and Namika are unphased by the knowledge of how much time they have- surprisingly nonchalant when confronted with the reminders of their own mortality.

“Isn’t it kind of weird knowing when you’ll die?” Shinsou asks them. “I wouldn’t want to know that.”

The purple haired boy has been quiet- well, more quiet than usual ever since Izuku excitedly told him he finally found his quirk.

“It’s not the weirdest quirk I’ve seen in the last decade of being a foster parent.” Namika insists. “It’ll take more than that to unsettle me.”

“If anything, knowing I have over half a century left with my lovely wife puts my heart at rest!” Yumi enthuses.

“However, you should remember that people sometimes react badly when faced with something like this. People might get offended or scared.” Namika advises. “Not everyone will understand just how amazing your quirk is.”

That night, while their brushing the green-food coloring from their teeth, Shinsou brings up the subject again. “You got a quirk.”

“Yeah! I’m so excited that I finally have one. I can’t wait to test it out.” Izuku’s enthusiasm is real, even if he can’t tell people about the rest of his quirk, it feels amazing to share a small part of it.

“But, it’s a bad quirk. It’s creepy and you can’t be a hero with it. Doesn’t that bother you?”

Izuku starts tearing up at the insult. It hurts more than it should because Shinsou is right on the money- Izuku's real quirk _is_ unsuitable for hero work and it _does_ bother him. The worst part is, Shinsou doesn’t seem like he’s trying to be mean about it. In fact, the purple haired boy looks concerned for Izuku’s sake as the boy continues to sniffle.

“That’s what my parents told me when my quirk manifested.” Shinsou shrugs defensively.

Forget about his own quirk; Izuku is appalled. He knew people bullied Shinsou for his quirk, but to think his own parents treated him that way…

“Stop crying!” Shinsou yells as Izuku’s sobbing increases in volume, “You got a whole party for your stupid quirk!”

“Shin-Shinsou! We have to throw you a party for your quirk.” Izuku gasps between teary sobs.

“Eh, what?” In response to Shinsou’s confusion, Izuku runs downstairs, tears still streaming down his face.

Namika is immediately concerned for the green haired boy, but before she can ask what’s wrong, Izuku is shouting, “Mrs. Noboru! Shinsou never got a congratulations party for his quirk! It’s not fair that I did and he didn’t when his quirk is so much cooler than mine! We have to throw one right now.”

Akane, who is cleaning up the remains of the green cake, looks up and asks, “Does this mean we get more dessert?”

“Want ice cream.” Rei shouts, still strapped into her high chair in the kitchen, her face smeared with green.

“It’s your bedtime, Izuku-” Namika starts to say, but Yumi, who was drawn into the kitchen by the noise, sighs in defeat when Izuku explains the situation to her.

“Namika, he does have a point. Shinsou never got a congratulations party for his quirk and you know that the school counselor wants us to work on quirk positivity with him.”

Namika eyes her partner, then Akane, Rei, and Izuku, and finally Shinsou who has poked his head down the stairs and is watching the proceedings with big eyes.

“I guess we’re getting a second cake.” She aquits.

“Actually, I was thinking icecream.” Yumi says with a smile.

And so Izuku’s congratulations-on-your-quirk party becomes Izuku and Shinsou's joint congratulations-on-you-quirks party. Yumi runs to the store to pick up a tub of icecream and Akane helps Izuku paste ‘& Shinsou!’ onto the half-eaten green cake. Shinsou himself looks like he’s entered the twilight zone. He doesn’t bother to hide his emotions for once, shyly smiling and laughing along with Izuku and the rest of the Noboru family. After a bit of good natured prodding (“you have to demonstrate your quirk for us, Hitoshi, it’s your party, after all!”) He even uses his quirk on Izuku to make him do a cartwheel. Izuku fails the attempt at a cartwheel and is almost immediately knocked out of the paralysis by the jolt. He dramatically flops over ungracefully. There’s a flash of familiar self-loathing on Shinsou’s face when Yumi rushes to Izuku’s side, asking, “Oh my goodness, are you alright?"

But then Rei bursts into laughter screaming, “AGAIN, AGAIN!!!” and Izuku laughs along with her and starts furiously analyzing Shinsou’s quirk.

“I can’t normally do a cartwheel so we know that your quirk has limits as to what it can make someone do. I guess if they don’t have the skill then you can’t make them learn it just by commanding them to. We should test it out and see just how far we can push the boundary of-

” “Really? You want to test my quirk?” Shinsou interrupts him.

Izuku doesn't know how Shinsou could think his quirk is villainous. The ability to control people isn't inherently good or evil- it's simply a tool. Sure, Shinsou could use it for evil, but that still wouldn't make the quirk itself bad. He attempts to explain this to the purple haired boy, hoping that maybe his friend can finally accept what an incredible power he has and stop hating himself for it.

“Of course! Your quirk-” At his response, Izuku feels the haze of Shinsou’s quirk settle over his mind like a weighted blanket.

The flash of self-loathing is completely gone from Shinsou's face. It's been replaced with a mischievous grin that suits the boy's features so much better.

“Rei wants an encore. Do a handstand.” Shinsou commands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I lied last chapter about having plot and timeskips. This chapter just ended up being entirely the aftermath of the villain attack (and introducing Shinsou and the Noboru family). I tried to write plot, guys, I really did.  
> In my defense, I had really bad writer’s block, but it wasn't the type of writer's block I normally get where I stop writing completely. Instead, it was this weird thing where I could only write fluff and filler non essential to the plot. I wrote frickin 50 + pages of mediocre filler and about 5 pages of the actual plot relevant stuff I wanted to get to. 0 - o  
> RIP my free time, at least I basically have the next two weeks worth of chapters written.  
> This story keeps getting longer and longer and I don’t know how to trim the extra fat off. Normally I don’t write enough. If you guys have any tips I’d appreciate it so I don’t overwork myself trying to write a 100,000,000 word fic T ^ T


	6. Villain or Vigilante

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I try to imply and mention the stuff related to the warnings rather than showing it "on screen" so to speak.  
> WARNINGS  
> Two OCs in an underage relationship are mentioned, (16yr old female and 22yr old male), abusive relationships, murder, language  
> EDIT (7/26/20 I forgot the chapter title when I posted this last night at 1:00 AM 0 - o sorry! ... 8/3/20 changed all Instances of "Shota" to "Shouta" because apparently this is how we've decided we write long ō sounds now... idk... maybe I don't understand the Japanese language as well as I thought I did)

Things don’t instantly get better at school just because Izuku has a quirk now. Like Namika said, the kids in his class are suspicious of his new quirk, and apparently the Japanese government is as well. A few days after they register Death Date as his official quirk, they get a call from the quirk registry and soon Izuku is sitting in a room with three white walls and a big mirror one and being asked questions by a strange man in a suit with a sharp goatee. He isn’t allowed to have Yumi or Namika in the room with him, but supposedly they’re watching from the other side of the glass. Still, the room feels ominous, and Izuku doesn’t like it. Izuku is asked by a nondescript man in a suit a few questions about his quirk. All in all, the process can’t take more than half an hour, but to Izuku it feels like eternity.

He stammers through the interview (interrogation?) and eventually the man smiles and thanks him for his cooperation.

“Why is this happening? None of the other kids...“

The man’s face doesn’t change as he states, “This is standard procedure for anyone with a precognition type quirk.”

“Why?” Izuku wonders.

“Quirks can be dangerous. For most people, simply registering their quirk is enough to keep it in check. But any sort of quirk that involves foresight has to be screened extremely carefully. Luckily, I don’t think that your quirk is going to cause any economic collapses or give away government secrets any time soon.”

Izuku never thought about that before. If one person with a precognition quirk were to play the stock market, they could make millions. And suppose to a competitor were to find out and retaliate by finding other people with foresight quirks… the resulting chaos could seriously endanger the economy. So in a sense, he supposed the government monitored foresight quirks for the safety of everyone. He hopes the government won’t watch him any further because he's already come uncomfortably close to having his real quirk discovered once. The man then offers Izuku a sticker, the same kind that he gets at the doctor’s office when he’s been good. The bright blue and yellow tones of All Might are so different from the sterile, cold feeling in the interrogation room that Izuku giggles. Government man looks just as emotionless as ever, but Izuku will take emotionless over suspicious any day.

From here, things slowly get better for Izuku. He bonds with Shinsou and the other kids that stay with the Noborus. At school, the bullying continues until someone finally connects the dots and realizes that he’s the quirkless kid who survived the villain attack by being crushed under a faulty play structure. The other kids leave him alone after that. No one wants to be caught bullying a victim of a villain attack; now that Izuku has a quirk, the teachers are stricter about bullying. Of course, being avoided like the plague doesn’t matter to Izuku because he has Shinsou and Akane and even little Rei.

As if the universe is finally throwing him a bone, Inko Midoriya is released from the hospital at the end of the school year and Izuku goes home. When he goes to see her at the hospital and she’s sitting in the front lobby, dressed in normal clothes and looking like his mother again Izuku bawls his eyes out.

“They’re happy tears.” He promises his mother as she fusses over him.

Mitsuki picks them up from the hospital and drops them off at their apartment. The building feels almost foreign after spending almost an entire year living with the Noborus. Before Mitsuki leaves, she asks if Izuku is going back to the same elementary school as her son. Izuku tells her he’s already decided he likes his new school much better. It means a longer commute in the mornings, but it's worth it to hang out with people that actually want him around. He thinks Mitsuki’s face looks a little pained at his words, but she attempts to cover up the emotion by grinning with her teeth and giving him a friendly slap on the back.

“Call me if you need anything. I’ll be here.” She promises before giving Inko a gentle hug.

Now that he’s back in his old apartment with just him and his mom, Izuku settles into a routine of taking care of her medical needs. Although she was released from the hospital, she still needs a wheelchair to get around. She’ll probably always need a wheelchair. Mrs. Nara’s attack had left the muscles in Inko’s chest and the ligaments in her back so messed up she can barely stand up on her own. She needs a lot of expensive medical equipment just to function and Izuku’s not sure how they’re paying for it all. When he brings it up, his mom laughs gently and assures him that an elementary schooler shouldn’t be worried about money. Regardless, Izuku promises to get a job when he’s old enough to legally work.

In the meantime, he has all the free time he wants to work on creating a new persona to atone for his crimes. Izuku had made several more kills while at the Noboru house and had discovered more about his quirk. For one thing, he could manipulate the circumstances of a person’s death by writing it down in his journal beneath the victim- target’s name. He had figured this out one night when he had been brainstorming alternative ways to kill a villain provided that his quirk became too infamous to use. And that had been the original problem; with every villain that he killed with a heart attack, the legacy of the Heart Attack Killer grew.

Some newspapers had claimed the new string of murders were made by a copycat, others suggested the Heart Attack Killer was simply a madman who enjoyed death. If Izuku wasn’t careful, these deaths were going to be traced back to him eventually. However, this new aspect of his ability fixed that problem. Izuku could kill villains in ways that seemed totally innocent: slipping and falling down the stairs, being hit by a car, quirk failure, sleepwalking to the oven turning it on and climbing into it... Okay, maybe Izuku is a little graphic with that last one, but the man he targets is a serial arsonist who burned down several restaurants by turning on the ovens and filling them with flammable materials. In the man’s last arson, over 50 people had died, many of which were families looking to enjoy an evening meal. So what if Izuku gives him a little taste of his own medicine? What really matters is that dying in a fire is on trend for the villain. The police have no reason to expect that he was manipulated in any way. All the while Izuku still kills people as the Heart Attack Killer, but he does so rarely. He provides just enough evidence that the police are aware he’s still active (and hunting villains) but not enough for them to pool their resources into stopping him.

The heroes will eventually realize the Heart Attack killer is on their side. He’s sure of it.

Izuku carefully researches every person he kills before he kills them. He makes sure they deserve death- that ending their life will help others in some way. It’s during his research that he stumbles across an internet forum dedicated to the Heart Attack Killer. Most of the threads are about his identity or his quirk, but there’s one that catches his eye titled,

_I wish the Heat Attack Killer would kill my emotionally abusive boyfriend._

In short, the original post tells the story of how the user is being bullied by their significant other. Izuku feels bad for the user, but he’s not going to kill the boyfriend. For one, the boyfriend hasn’t actually done anything illegal. It sounds like he’s toxic and controlling, but even if he wanted to, Izuku couldn't kill him because he doesn’t know the man’s name. But then Izuku scrolls down into the rest of the thread. The comments section is surprisingly active, and is filled with stories that are much worse. Horror stories, as Akane would call them. Perhaps the scariest part is, some of the stories include names, photographs. There’s nothing stopping Izuku from killing these people, except his own consciousness. These are civilians, not villains. Maybe they aren’t innocent, but they’re not criminals. Izuku can’t kill them…

_But that doesn't mean you don't want to, right?_

Izuku tries to ignore the little voice in his mind, but the more he reads the sicker he feels as he realizes some of these 'civilians' have done worse things than villains and gotten away with it too. Izuku sees one comment that includes an address. It’s near the outskirts of Musutafu, just a bus ride away. The target that the poster wants the Heart Attack Killer to eliminate has done horrible things to the poster's little sister, implying some things Izuku really doesn’t want to read about. He’s about to skip to the next comment when he almost does a double take. At the end of the lengthy comment, the poster includes the target's name and a picture of them. Izuku recognizes them- they’re a popular sidekick at the Endeavor agency: Firefight. Their ability to manipulate the size and temperatures of a blaze had made them a shoe-in for the sidekick position, and many people compared him to Endeavor in terms of their popularity with locals. Surely such a well-beloved hero couldn't be capable of these crimes?

Izuku wants to find out.

He makes up his mind, not knowing if he’ll regret it in the future. He tells his mom that he’s going to the store to buy milk. He gets on the subway and then takes a bus to the nearest stop before walking to the address on the comment. The hero’s house is post-modern and expensive looking- the man must make quite a bit working at the Endeavor agency. He waits on the front porch, feeling sillier and sillier by the moment. Izuku is oddly anxious about the whole situation- after all, it's most likely that Firefight will refute the claims and then Izuku will look stupid for believing some troll on the internet and harassing a hero at their house. Maybe Izuku should leave before the man gets home. Izuku fidgets with his watch, which he had synced with Firfight's patrol schedule (common knowledge if you know where to look on the hero fanboy forums). He should be arriving right… now.

An expensive looking hybrid pulls up to the curb and a man gets out, his eyes narrowing as he sees Izuku. All Izuku has to do is make a good impression. Introduce himself, ask a couple questions, then apologize and hope the man doesn't get too offended when Izuku asks him about-

“Hey, get off my porch!”

So much for first impressions.

“Firefight?” Izuku calls timidly, and then full body cringes when the man frowns.

Oh no. Izuku has the wrong house. It's probably not even Firefight, just some random dude who is wondering why Izuku is standing on his porch.

But the man laughs (much to izuku's relief) and exclaims, “I see. You’re a fanboy!” as his gruff demeanor melts away. “Well, since you're here I guess ya should come in.”

The man crosses the driveway quickly and opens the front door with a gesture to Izuku to enter. The house is just as nice inside as it is outside, clearly continuing the post-modern, this-costs-more-than-your-yearly-salary look. It has nice black leather furniture and a huge television screen way bigger than the one at Izuku’s house. The floorplan opens into a stainless steel kitchen. There are a few photos of Firefight and a petite woman- his significant other- as well as one of a much younger Firefight in a baseball uniform holding a trophy.

“I knew your patrol would be over.” Izuku feels the need to explain as he politely removes his shoes in the doorway. “I kinda kept track of your movements online, and wow, that sounds really creepy. Ummm, I’m Izuku Midoriya.”

Firefight laughs. He has a warm laugh, as cliche as it may seem to describe someone with a fire quirk as warm. He simply exudes a friendly aura. He’s tall and muscled but has a kind face, and Izuku is starting to feel more and more embarrassed about coming to the man’s house to confront him.

“Nice to meet ya Izuku, and it’s alright… well, it’s not alright. You really shouldn’t go to random people’s houses. Now just a sec, let me get out of this uncomfortable-”

Izuku realizes that Firefight is still partially in his hero costume. He’s missing the distinctive orange headgear, but he’s still wearing the firefighter themed outfit that has become synonymous with his name and popular (for obvious reasons) at the Endeavor agency... The man pulls off the tan and yellow jacket and reveals the tight under armor-esque tank top and rippling muscles beneath it. Izuku blushes at the sight of the half-undressed hero. He looks like the firefighters in a dirty magazine one of the girls in his class brought to school and waved around until a teacher had confiscated it.

“I’m assuming ya found my address online as well?” Firefight asks as he disappears into an adjoining room and comes back in a black T-shirt and jeans. Izuku nods quickly, avoiding eye contact with the man.

“I- I wanted to ask you about Pippin Zhou.” Izuku squeaks out

The house is silent. Firefight’s hands still.

“Where did you hear that name?” The friendly aura is gone, replaced by something much more menacing.

Izuku blanches. He had expected a lot of different reactions: anger, annoyance, confusion, but this distinctly ominous aura was not one of them. Izuku starts to back pedal towards the door, but Firefight stops him, grabbing him by the shoulders none too gently. Izuku pulls his Notebook- the Notebook- from his pocket, and plays with a pencil between his fingers half out of nervousness and partially because he needs to look at anything other than the sidekick's face. He’s all too aware of the man’s hands on his shoulder, exuding a foreboding sense of heat, but he has to know the truth. 

“Did you know her?” Izuku asks quietly. "You were the last person she talked about before she went missing. Any investigation on her relationship with you has turned up nothing…But her sister says you were- were-were lovers. ”

Fire fight startles at the words and lets go of Izuku’s shoulders.

“Who told ya that?” His face is growing hard.

Izuku continues against his better judgement. “She was only 16 and you were 22 at the time she disappeared- right after she told her older sister about her relationship with you.” Izuku stops there.

He’s said enough. He doesn’t need to explain how Pippin’s sister had urged her to break up with the sidekick. He doesn’t need to tell him that her family has been looking for her for the past three years. He doesn't need to include that any suggestion of foul play by the popular sidekick had been either buried or completely dismissed despite questionable circumstances. .

“Is this some sort of trap? You got a camera on ya or something? You’ll be hearing from my lawyers if this is some sort of ploy to get me to- to- to confess.” The nervousness of Firefight’s face is telling.

Izuku feels betrayed, which is ridiculous because he’s only known this man for less than ten minutes. He’d come here hoping to be proven wrong, only to walk straight into a murderer’s hands.

"You did kill her, didn't you?" Izuku whimpers.

“I bet ya read this online.” The man’s face relaxes marginally as Izuku nods, but his posture stays just as tense, “Man, ya sure are dumb. Don’t you know that conspiracy stuff doesn’t hold up in court?”

The friendly aura hasn’t returned. If anything, the man seems more menacing than before. Izuku edges towards the door, slowly opening to a new page in his Notebook.

“You’re supposed to be a hero.”

"I am a hero! I loved Pip but she was an idiot! She wanted to go public with our relationship and I told her we had to wait until she was 18, but then she went and told her bitch of a sister!” Izuku shrinks back as the man’s tone becomes more aggressive, his eyes burning with anger. “I couldn’t lose my career because some hoe couldn’t keep her mouth shut! I save people everyday and she was going to take that away from me! And You're not going to take that away from me either.”

Izuku scrambles over himself to get away from the ranting hero. He starts to write the man’s name down, but the hero rips the journal from his hands before he can finish the name.

“What, ya want an autograph? Sure!” Firefight cackles as he grabs a pen from the coffee table and scrawls his name across the page, and then tosses it across the room. “I'll grant a fanboy one last wish."

Izuku feels it the moment the signature is complete. He can feel the power, the heady euphoria of knowing a life sits in between his fingers and that the life is about to be snuffed out. Izuku prays to whatever deity that’s listening that his quirk will miraculously surprise him again.

“It’s funny, I was just thinking about Pip the other day. They didn’t find her body. They won’t find yours.”

His words are demented and Izuku isn’t sure how he hasn’t seen it before.

How has this horrible person- this villain masquerading as a hero- become so popular? How can people look at him and not see the madman that lies just beneath the surface? Moments earlier Izuku had only seen a friendly, charming hero, but standing in front of him now is a deranged and broken man. How come he couldn’t see it until said man is actively trying to murder him?

“Do the heroes know? Does Endeavor know?” Izuku stalls.

“That son of a bitch? He wouldn’t care even if he” Firefight’s face constricts, “did... know…”

The man huffs and coughs, then sits back down on the couch, his face going pale. Izuku takes the chance and darts across the room, grabbing his Notebook lying haphazardly on the floor. He doesn’t wait to see what happens before grabs his shoes and races out the backdoor, through the man’s backyard, and back to the bus stop.

He buys milk on the way home.

Later that evening, an article stub appears on his mother’s computer. _Pro Sidekick Firefight Dead at 25: Possible Victim of the Heart Attack Killer?_

Izuku jumps straight into analysis because it's better than the anlysis (sitting on his bed having a meltdown while he atempts to process that hero he had very much admired was a murderer and dead at his own hand). The Notebook is connected to Izuku’s quirk. Or is Izuku’s quirk connected to the Notebook? He’s not sure how it happened, but his quirk is getting stronger, strong enough that other people can activate it simply by writing in the Notebook. Inthat moment of madness, Firefight had signed his real name in the Notebook, somehow triggering his own death. Izuku thinks it’s still his quirk- after all, he’d felt the power go out from him as soon as Firefight finished writing his name. He’d known what would happen before it occurred. It begs the question though, just what is Izuku’s quirk? He’d thought it was as simple as writing down someone’s name and causing them to die, but his quirk has evolved considerably since he first discovered it. Death Date, manipulating the circumstances of the death, and now this? This new evolution- one that could potentially allow others to abuse his quirk, is terrifying. He tries not to lose sleep thinking about what could happen if a villain got their hands on his Notebook.

He loses enough sleep already, thinking about the menacing feeling of Firefight’s hands on his shoulders.

Weeks pass.

Izuku wishes he could be content killing people from his bedroom, but he isn’t. It doesn’t make sense, but after his encounter with Firefight he feels a need to do more. There’s so much crime happening that he can’t find out about by simply reading articles online. He’d naively assumed that heroes would stop the crime he couldn’t, but how can Izuku believe that anymore when a hero tried to… He takes to walking the streets near his house at night. Definitely not because of his mild insomnia. The first couple times, he gets spotted by a police officer or a hero that carts him back to his apartment with a scolding, his mother usually accepting of his claim that he was just out to clear his head. He learns to stick to the shadows- that’s were the villains hide anyways.

Izuku’s quirk is long-ranged. Stopping petty crime in general is difficult. He can't take the classic heroic approach and punch the criminal until they submit- with Izuku's quirk it's either death or life, all or nothing. And the first time Izuku stops a mugging as a vigilante, he realizes that not all criminals are equally bad. Right before Izuku steps onto the scene, he hears the criminal talking about how he needs this money for his daughter. She had gotten into a good school and their family needs money to pay the expensive fees. The mugger has been laid off work for a year and they couldn’t afford the school any other way. Izuku distracts the mugger by chucking a rock at him and basically just distracts the man until the police show up. Luckily for Izuku, the mugger isn’t violent, just desperate, and he tells Izuku he isn’t going to hurt a boy, even one that’s clearly a vigilante. As the police haul the mugger away, Izuku slips back into the shadows and thinks about how the man will probably get jail time and be labeled a villain. Then he thinks about how Firefight is considered a martyr, a bright flame snuffed out by the hands of the evil Heart Attack Killer. Izuku decides he is glad he hadn’t killed the mugger, but he also knows he couldn’t _not_ defend himself, as most thugs on the street aren’t so forgiving.

Izuku has morals- even if they are grey ones. He understands that not all criminals deserve to be punished in the same manner, and that many of the thugs that caused robberies and muggings were either people down on their luck or people making dumb choices. Still, he can’t let innocent people get hurt, not when he has the ability to stop it. Over the course of his time on the streets of Musutafu, he develops a system for stopping petty crime with minimal murdering.

Step one is only intervene if a person’s life or health is at risk. It’s hard to turn away the first time he sees a woman screaming that a man snatched her purse, but she has 40 years of her life left, and this crime isn’t putting her in danger. Not to mention, purse snatching doesn’t exactly deserve death; not even by the strictest legal regulations. He lets the thief, a teenage boy a few years older than him, go.

Step two is to try reasoning with the criminal. Sometimes Izuku will talk to the aggressor and realize they can be talked out of their crime, or that the so-called villain has their own side of the story. People who commit crimes of passion are the easiest to talk down; most of the time, even seeing an interloper is enough for them to cease their actions. Izuku loses count of how many times he’s walked between an arguing couple, or some drunk friends getting into a fight over an insult that’s been taken a bit too seriously. Unfortunately, if the situation seems too dicey, Izuku ends up skipping this step and going straight to step three: run.

Izuku figures out that when you give a criminal a target to follow, especially an annoying, weak-looking target that has already tried to interfere, they give chase. The thing is, Izuku is good at running. He’s spent his entire life so far running from bullies and that translates into running from villains just as well. He knows the city like the back of his hand; the best places to hide in a pinch, the streets where the sidewalk is treacherous and uneven, the areas where the buildings are grouped close enough that he can jump from roof to roof and the areas where he can’t. Step three accomplishes the goal of getting the victim away from the criminal, giving them time to call the police. Step three also gives Izuku enough time to get to step number four. He hates admitting it, but sometimes, when his legs are sore from running all night and his knuckles are bruised from throwing quick punches meant to infuriate and distract, Izuku wishes he could just skip to step four and open the Notebook every time he sees a criminal.

Months pass.

Izuku becomes decent at stopping petty crime without using the Notebook. It's a fun release from what he considers his real work- killing the really bad criminals from a distance. He doesn’t rely so much on internet articles anymore, after he kills Firefight, the thread where he had found the original accusations blows up. More requests pour in as the users realize that the Heart Attack Killer actually listened to one of the comments followed through, even if Izuku hadn't been planning to when he had left his house seeking answers. The moderators eventually close down the thread at request of the Musutafu police, but that doesn’t start dozens more from opening up. Izuku visits them on nights when he’s too busy to patrol. The internet quickly figures out that the Heart Attack Killer requires a face and a real name tokill, and while Izuku hates that information is getting out about his quirk, it’s worth it to know that the villains that society doesn’t catch are finally getting what’s coming to them.

Years pass

...

Shouta is tired, and it has nothing to do with the fact that he only got half an hour of sleep last night. He’s trained himself to run on less sleep for days at a time- such is the life of an underground hero. He shuts the door of his apartment, his two cats winding around his feet in greeting as he drops his bag by the entryway and collapses onto the first soft surface he sees; his living room couch, a battered, half-destroyed old thing, curtsey of the aptly named kitten, Claws. No, Shouta is tired because it’s been an emotionally exhausting last few months.

Apparently expelling your entire class of first years creates a lot of angry parents.

For those unfamiliar with the mechanics of expelling 20 students, it's not a one-and-done situation. The parents of those students paid a lot of money for their spoiled brats to attend UA, and expelling them had opened up a can of worms Shouta hadn’t been prepared for. Perhaps a better phrase would be a can of lawsuits. Nedzu hadn’t accepted Shouta’s (completely valid) reasoning that none of the students this year had any potential. As some sort of twisted punishment, he had forced Shouta to field all of the angry phone calls from pompous lawyers himself. It's extremely awkward to explain to a seemingly blind parent that their kid is actually a spoiled brat, and that having a powerful quirk doesn't mean they are the right “fit” for the hero course at UA. And Shouta has to do it 20 times over. The task that was undertaking a legal battle against 20 angry students from wealthy families had dragged on for several months now.

Although, considering that all of the young “heroes” had gone straight to their parents’ six-figure lawyers instead of trying to approach him and advocate for themselves proved his point. When Shouta had expelled the class, he had secretly hoped that at least a few of the students would handle it maturely. He was completely justified in expelling those kids- giving them false hope only to have it ripped away by the difficult reality of the hero industry would have been cruel- he just wished others could see it that way too. Even if they had approached him a week- hell, a month- after the expulsion and argued their case rationally, Shouta would have considered inviting them back to UA. Unfortunately, there was no handling it maturely. There had been actual kicking and screaming and tantrums involved and after literal months of dealing with it Shouta is completely done. b

Hence, why he is tired.

"Too many lawsuits, Whiskers." Shouta groans at his cat.

Whiskers is unimpressed.

Speaking of lawsuits... Oh shit, Shouta forgot the paperwork for the lawsuits at work. Unfortunately for the exhausted teacher, there’s a stack of paperwork sitting on his desk at UA that needs to be delivered to the police department because the several parents had accused him of criminal gross negligence. The charges probably won't hold up in any court of law, especially against a pro hero, but he still has to fill out paperwork anyways. With another exhausted complaint that neither of his cats react to, Eraserhead, pro underground hero, peels himself off the couch and heads back to his office.

Arriving at the police station 37 minutes later (37 minutes that he could be sleeping) he drops off the stack of paperwork on the nearest desk. He is about to walk out the door and escape back to his apartment and his cats when he hears the dreaded sound of someone making small talk at him.

“Hey Eraserhead? Busy night?” It was one of the cops who works at the police station more as little more than a glorified intern.

“Yes.” Shouta fixes them with his best leave-me-alone stare.

“Well are you busy now?”

“Yes.”

“And I suppose by busy, you mean you’re going to go cuddle your twelve cats, right?” The desk jockey shoots back with a snicker.

Aizawa stiffens, annoyed because the officer isn't wrong, exactly (He'd much rather be holding his cats right now). Ever since the people at the station had found out that the terrifying and mysterious Eraserhead was a cat person, the entirety of the police force had been insufferable, case in point. Shouta doesn’t do anything as juvenile as talk back or argue that he doesn’t have an animal hoarding problem and explain that he only has two indoor cats and a couple strays that he feeds on his back porch and occasionally a rescue that he fosters. The point is, he’s a grown man and he’s not ashamed that he likes animals.

Instead he simply raises the intensity of his stare from “leave me alone, annoying student” to “time for a very unpleasant death, annoying criminal.” 

“Um, Detective Tsukauchi wants to talk with you.” The officer gulps, averting his eyes and finally making use of that threat assessment training from last fall.

Shouta holds back a sigh because he’s a professional. He cordially nods to the officer and then stalks through Tsukauchi’s office.

As soon as the door clicks shut, he whirls on the decective, insisting, “This better be good because I actually could be at home cuddling my cats and trying to overcome the emotional trauma of the past two months right now.”

Detective Tsukauchi is unimpressed.

“You brought this on yourself.” The truth-telling detective reminds him.

Shouta sinks into one of the overstuffed armchairs in Tsukauchi’s office, hoping the man will make it fast.

“I already dropped the paperwork for the criminal negligence charges at the front desk.” Shouta groans.

“No, it’s not that. This is about a case you were interested in a couple of months back. I figured since your entire class is expelled, you ought to have a lot of free time.”

Shouta resists the urge to roll his eyes but he does mutter, “I wouldn’t exactly call this free time.”

The detective offers him a small, conciliatory smile before handing him the file in a manila folder.

“Get some sleep, Aizawa.” He says. “Take a look at the case after things have calmed down a bit.”

Tsukachi is no-nonsense. He’s respectful of heroes and is understanding of their limits and their busy schedules. Shouta likes to think that out of everyone on the police force, he's the one that knows him best, not as Eraerhead, but simply as Shouta Aizawa. He nods in thanks, tucks the file under his arm, and quickly makes his way home. 

This time, neither cat greets him at the door. In fact, the door frame looks suspiciously more scratched-up than usual. When Shouta goes to pick up Whiskers, the siamese just bites at his hand, probably offended by the fact that he had to leave earlier. Whiskers stalks off imperiously, not even deigning to pause and let Shouta pet her. The underground hero looks around for Claws, but the lazy grey tabby is probably asleep under the couch or something. Shouta gives up looking for them and sets about preparing for much needed sleep. The dishes need to be washed and the coffee pot on the kitchen counter is in dire straits, but he can probably put off cleaning it for one more day. He gives it a sniff and it doesn’t smell like it’s about to spontaneously evolve and gain sentience so as a general rule it’s probably fine to leave it overnight.

Shouta’s about to head to bed when the manila file catches his attention. He had tossed it onto the counter earlier, and one of the pages had slid free of the folder. He picks it up and sees that it’s an article stub from some newspaper. He’s about to slide it back when he notices it’s title, ‘ _Heart Attack Killer, Vigilante or Villain?’_ Of course. The Heart Attack Killer case. The cases had started about ten years ago, and since then had raised controversy among the public and the police- a murder with morals they called him. The criminal known as Heart Attack Killer started off killing heroes- behavior certainly suggestive of a villain. Only the Heart Attack Killer doesn’t limit himself to killing murderers, however. He kills rapists and monsters and villains that have committed atrocities too horrible to speak of. It's not like the normal infighting of the criminal world either. The Heart Attack Killer targets the worst of the worst- oftentimes villains- causing some people regard him as a vigilante. Others simply can’t overcome the fact that the Heart Attack Killer himself is a murderer, making him no different than many of the monsters he killed.

What made the Heart Attack Killer really interesting is the fact his identity is completely unknown. Most villains of his caliber (and Shouta is assuming the Heart Attack Killer is a man, that’s how little they have to go on) like to have the spotlight. Villains and vigilantes alike love to be recognized, and a villain with supposed “morals” should want attention even more. Yet in the last decade, no one had ever claimed the kills. Well, that was technically incorrect; several small-time villains had stepped forward with claims of being the dreaded serial killer, only to die of a heart attack the next day.

Shouta rubs the bridge of his nose gently, as if it could release some of the pressure building up in his skull. The Heart Attack Killer case is high profile, while also requiring the skills and prudence of heroes that can keep it on the down-low. The public knows bits and pieces about the Heart Attack Killer- specifically his habit of murdering other criminals. However, the public doesn’t know just how impossible he is to catch. There are next to zero sightings of the killer, and very little is known about his quirk, except that it either lets him kill from a distance or escape from the murder scene completely undetected. The police department really doesn’t want their lack of knowledge getting out, so the fact that Tsukauchi slipped Shouta this file is kinda a big deal.

The last thing Shouta needs is another big deal.

Yes, the case sparks his interest, but Shouta doesn’t exactly have the time right now… to… His internal monologue as to why he can’t take the case trails off as he continues to skim the report. There’s a note from the detective labeled ‘ _Eraserhead’._

It reads: _Aizawa_ , _I know you’re probably planning to turn down the Heart Attack Killer case, so I’ll keep this straight to the point. I hope you got a good night's sleep because the investigation has finally panned out some eye witness accounts. From the description given- a short, slim figure in a middle school uniform and a kabuki mask- most recent evidence would suggest Heart Attack Killer is likely a child, or perhaps a teenager at best. This revelation would definitely change public perception of the perpetrator, as well as the legal ramifications of his actions. I’m trying to keep this professional, but I hope to God he’s not a minor, because if he is, it’s been possible that he’s been killing since the very first day his quirk manifested. Are you going to take this case now? -Tsukauchi._

Damn. Tsukauchi really does know Shouta better than he thought the detective did. The exhausted man refills the coffee pot, turns it on with a click, and settles down at the kitchen table to pour over the files more closely. It looks like Eraserhead isn’t getting any sleep tonight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: Mom, can we have Endeavor?  
> Mom: We have Endeavor at home  
> Endeavor at home: *is just Firefight*  
> .  
> .  
> .  
> I totally realized that Firefight is discount Endeavor and that maybe I wrote that whole bit because I wanted to kill Endeavor- but was too scared- so I subconsciously made up an OC that (in my mind) is similar in terms of douche-ness and killed him off instead.  
> Self-analysis aside, we finally are moving into the general time that the first season happens! Exciting, right?


	7. Beginnings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> warnings; BULLYING, CANNON TYPICAL VIOLENCE, plot development

Izuku Midoriya- average middle school student- lives a normal, ordinary life, and he works hard to keep it that way. The Heart Attack Killer- god of death, scourge of villains, and Japan’s most wanted vigilante- is a completely different story, which is why it's so frustrating when the two intersect.

“Crazy right?” Shinsou insists while waving his phone in front of Izuku’s face, the screen showing a recent article by a magazine that usually covers heroes and their exploits.

Instead of All-Might or Endeavor or someone actually newsworthy, a dark, blurry photo of Izuku is pictured on the screen… not that Shinsou (or anyone else) knows it’s him. The white and red mask hides his face completely from view. In the shadows, his dark green hair color is indistinguishable from black. When the photo was taken, he had been moving too quickly for the phone to snap a good picture of him, but if the press could make out what he was wearing through the blur of shadows, it would be a nondescript suit- something you would expect to see at a business casual meeting, not darting through a dark alley at night. Over all, the photo is hardly anything to gawk at. Yet because it’s one of the few (confirmed) photos of the Heart Attack Killer, the media reposts it everywhere. Everywhere. Izuku’s rather proud of the fact that he can count on one hand the number of photos the public has of the Heart Attack Killer, and most reveal less information than this one.

Izuku tries very hard to pretend he hasn’t noticed the phone. He focuses instead on his task; wiping down and cleaning up exercise equipment at the fitness center. He sprays a towel with disinfectant and wipes vigorously along the handles of an exercise bike as Shinsou reaches over the check in desk, tapping on his friend's shoulder and shoving the phone closer to Izuku’s face.

“Well, Zuku, what do you think?” Shinsou asked, oblivious to his friend’s discomfort. “Is the Heart Attack Killer a vigilante or a villain?”

Izuku does his best to swallow his discomfort and annoyance at the questions. Shinsou knows that The Heart Attack Killer "bothers" him but today he’s refusing to leave it alone for some reason. Izuku can’t exactly blame him for his pushiness, though; Izuku himself isn’t much better with his constant muttering and blurting out quirk analysis that Shinsou has been the unwilling recipient of many times over. It's an important part of their friendship; Izuku is aware that if it really bothers him, he could ask Shinsou to stop and the purple haired menace would. 

“Well, I guess it depends on how you look at it. He’s stopped a lot of bad guys. That’s got to count for something, right?” Izuku laughs nervously, “He’s still a criminal though. He deserves to go to jail for killing all those people.”

Shinsou’s face falls, something like disappointment flashing across too quickly for Izuku to interpret.

“I guess.” He shrugs.

In all the years that Izuku had known the purple haired boy, Shinsou had never been very emotive, drawing a stark contrast to Izuku’s expressiveness. In fact, the two appear to be opposites in many ways- Shinsou was ridiculously tall whereas Izuku was diminutive, never quite hitting the growth spurt he had been waiting for since elementary school. Izuku tends to become passionate and easily-excited, while Shinsou can repress his emotions as easily as putting on a mask. Still, the friendship they had formed at the Noboru house has lasted this long and Izuku isn’t about to let something as trivial as having completely opposite personalities jeopardize it.

“Hey!” A voice comes from across the gym, as the manager on shift catches sight of them talking. “We don’t pay you kids to look at your phones!”

“Sorry sir.” Izuku calls back with a guilty grin as he adjusts his grip on the towel and continues wiping down the exercise equipment.

"Pushover." Shinsou rolls his eyes and shoves his phone in his pocket before going back to his task of manning the check-in desk. After a few minutes of silence, two young men dressed in athletic wear, obviously fitness buffs, enter and walk up to the desk.

“Hello and welcome to Quirk Fitness Solutions. Please check-in using the book here.” Shinsou repeats the well-rehearsed line with a small nod towards the log.

Fitness buff number one goes to check in, but fitness buff number two raises his eyebrows at Shinsou’s laid back demeanor.

“Eeeeeh dude. You sure this is the job for you? No offense but you don’t look like someone that works out very much. You look kinda… dead inside.”

Izuku grimaces at the lack of tact but Shinsou just rolls with it and sasses, “I am dead inside. Now please sign in.”

Fitness buff number one snickers a little, but is cut off with a sharp glance from his friend, who apparently takes Shinsou’s reply as a challenge.

“Listen here, you little shit, I’m not about to workout at some gym where the employees are middle schoolers that have arms that look like twigs.”

“This is a fitness center for training quirks.” Shinsou grits out. “And if you didn’t know that from reading the sign it’s clear you don’t have an intelligence one.”

Fitness buff number two doesn’t like Shinsou’s response because he starts to get even more worked up, giving the purple haired boy a lecture about talking back to customers.

As his tone grows louder and more rude, Izuku can’t help but interject, “Hey, leave him alone.”

“Dude, stop. They’re just kids.” Fitness Buff number two insists, looking rather uncomfortable next to his loud friend.

Fitness buff number one turns incredulously to his friend. “Yeah, kids that run their mouths!”

Before the situation can escalate any further, Shinso and Izuku are saved by the manager. “Is there a problem, gentlemen?” The manager asks with false politeness.

Fitness buff number one tries to sputter something about disrespectful kids.

The manager nods thoughtfully, then switches suddenly to the most menacing aura he can manage while keeping up his smile, “I’m afraid we can’t help you. Please try the fitness center on 10th street. They have an excellent quirk fitness program.”

Fitness buff number two scowls and storms out while his friend apologizes profusely and exits the building as well.

“Thank you, sir.” Izuku sighs, as Shinsou slumps over in relief.

“I hate customers like that.” Shinsou groans, his voice muffled by the desk.

The manager nods sagely, his menacing aura disappearing and suddenly he seems like a normal, polite, professional.

“At least they left. Let me know if they come back.” He laughs.

Despite the strict appearance the older man projects, the manager at Quirk Fitness Solution has always been good to the two boys. He offered Izuku a job at the fitness center, after all. Izuku had come to the gym almost weekly just to watch people use their quirks in new and exciting ways, hoping to get a glance of a pro hero. During middle school, Izuku had started analyzing customer’s quirks and became a regular, stopping by every afternoon to help people strengthen or learn to control their abilities. At this point half the customers in the gym thought Izuku was either related to the gym owner or an up-and-coming quirk trainer. As soon as Izuku reached the legal age for work, the manager made it official and handed the boy a name tag and a check. After he saw Izuku’s determination and work ethic, he was more than willing to hire Shinsou as well when he was looking for more employees and the green-haired boy recommended his friend.

“Listen, Midoriya, we have a couple of high-paying clients coming in this weekend.” Izuku is about to go back to furiously scrubbing an exercise bike with a cleaning spray, but the manager pulls him aside.

Izuku knows what this means; “high paying” is code for heroes, popular ones. A few small time and underground heroes come to their gym regularly, but not enough for it to show up on the radar in the hero community. However if a big name hero started coming to Quirk Fitness Solutions, it could finally be the gym’s big break. 

“I want you to work with them on their quirk training.” The manager’s eyes are practically glinting with excitement.

“Me!” Izuku can scarcely believe that the manager would trust him with this responsibility, “I’m kinda young though, aren’t you afraid it will send the wrong idea? And I’ve only been working here officially for less than a year, although if you count the time I used to spend here as a kid to watch people train their quirks it could be longer, but I’m not sure-”

“Midoriya, kid. You’re one of the best quirk analysts that works here.”

“Thank you!” Izuku gasps, tears in his eyes.

“Also, the normal guy had a thing and you were my back up! Don’t worry about it though, I’ll be watching you very closely to ensure that you don’t mess this up for me!”

“Um... That doesn’t make me feel much better.”

“Well good, because I want you on your toes for this one!” the manager grins and orders, “Now polish those exercise bikes until I can see my reflection in the handles!”

Izuku jumps back into his work, spurred by his boss’s enthusiasm. With the visit from the “high paying” customer to look forward to, it seems to pass faster than usual. Izuku and Shinsou’s shift at the fitness center ends around 8:00 pm. They wave goodbye to each other and take off in opposite directions. Normally Izuku would walk home, eat dinner, and perhaps do some homework. Tonight, however, is not a normal night. Izuku is too amped up from thinking about the coming weekend. Which hero is coming to visit their gym? Is it someone in the top 100? The top 50? Izuku needs to burn off some of the spare energy. He pulls out his phone and texts his mom.

_Izuku: Guess what :)_

_Izuku: A hero’s coming 2 check out the gym this weekend and the manager wants me 2 analyze their quirk!!!!!!!!!!!!_

_Mom: Oh dear, that’s wonderful! Are you gonna get dinner on your way home? I could make some Katsudon to celebrate._

_Izuku: Sorry i’m gonna be late tonight Izuku:_

_Just wanted 2 let you know <3 _

_Mom: I’m sure Mr. manager has you cleaning that gym from top to bottom. ;) Thanks for letting me know, sweetie._

Izuku dashes behind the gym and quickly stashes his backpack, pulling out the familiar contents. He already knows that there aren’t any cameras or windows facing this side of the fitness center, and he doesn’t waste time looking. He takes off his Quirk Fitness Solutions branded athletic wear that him and the other employees are required to wear and puts his school uniform back on. It’s a simple pair of black slacks and a matching collared shirt. Unexciting. Indistinct. Exactly the same as thousands of other students across his prefecture. However, instead of donning his standard attire middle school jacket, he slips on the high tech suit jacket laced with bullet proof and fire resistant fabric. As well as a black tie with a pin that hides a slender, 2-inch blade. Custom-made, along with the suit jacket. Long story short, almost everything about his costume is designed to look ordinary, on its own.

The tie and it’s pin look completely innocent while retracted. The suit jacket seems to be no more than a piece of formal wear, nothing that would cause any questions if someone were to look through his bag. The texture of the fabric is heavier and sleeker than a normal suit, but few pay that much attention. Izuku completes the look with his signature mask. He slips the familiar piece from it’s hidden compartment hand sewn into the bottom of his bag. While the other parts of his vigilante costume are innocuous, the mask is instantly recognizable as part of the Heart Attack Killer’s getup. It’s white and depicts a demon with fierce eyes, horns, and fangs. It’s meant to terrify and intimidate- something Izuku couldn’t exactly do without its help (Shinsou had said Izuku’s own face was about as scary as a distraught puppy).

He’s just going to go on a simple run through the city: scare a few muggers without even using his quirk, check up on some pet projects, terrify criminals into being law abiding citizens, a fairly relaxed night for the Heart Attack Killer. As he darts out of the alleyway, limbs light with the adrenaline rush that always comes with vigilantism, he brushes away any truth of guilt he felt about lying to his mom. Technically everything Izuku told her was true, he just wasn’t going to spend the rest of the night at the gym like he had implied.

…

Izuku should have known it wouldn’t be a normal night. First of all, the muggers have prostrated themselves on the ground, and are crying out a speech that’s half a prayer and half a plea for mercy.

“Please, please don’t kill me, please, great Heart Attack Killer, I promise I’ll change.” The first criminal cries into the dirt.

“Dude please, we just wanted to teach the little shit a lesson, we weren’t going to hurt him.” The second criminal adds, his voice barely a whimper as he presses his face into his hands.

The alley is only a ten minute walk away from the fitness center- a four and a half minute parkour if Izuku takes the rooftops instead of the streets. It smells like a cross between a fridge that needs to be cleaned out and an outhouse, probably due to the overfilled dumpster pushed up against one of the walls. The alley is dingey and filled with trash and cast in shadow as alleyways that host muggings tend to be. Izuku hadn’t been surprised when he had heard pleas for help coming from the shadows. He had been surprised when he recognized the mugger’s voice, because second of all, the two criminals are fitness buff one and two from the gym earlier that day.

Izuku hadn’t gotten a good look at the victim at first, but now he see’s leaning against the wall-

“Shinsou.” Izuku mutters in shock.

There's a third reason why tonight's not a normal night.

“How do you know me?” Shinsou looks terrified.

There some dirt on his clothes and brand new bruising on his arms from being shoved around, but the teen is standing unaided, which is a good sign.

Fitness buff number one starts escalating into ugly sobs. “It’s true! The Heart Attack Killer knows everything! He’s going to punish us for our sins.”

This isn’t the first time Izuku’s had this reaction. After the media started to catch wind that the mysterious Heart Attack Killer punished criminals and could kill anyone, anywhere, they had run amok with different theories on just what Izuku really was. One of the crazier theories is that Izuku is a vengeful god of death sent to punish sinners. From all the trembling and prostrating themselves on the ground and pleading for forgiveness, fitness buff one and two probably buy into this theory. Izuku is simultaneously amused and relieved- this makes things much easier. He doesn’t have to kill them- just frighten them a little.

“Yes. I have been sent to judge your souls.” He attempts to lower his voice, glad his faithful mask hides his expression and muffles his tone.

“Don’t kill me!” begs number two, “I didn’t plan to screw Coco’s stepmom, It’s just, she was totally into me and I couldn’t help myself-”

“Bro, you had sex with your girlfriend’s step-mom? That’s so messed up.” Number one is still crying but he also has a look of disgust written across his features now that he’s raised his head up out of the dirt.

“Wait. Why is this relevant?” Izuku can’t help but ask.

This is definitely not the usual experience he has when stopping a beating on the street. Number two nods his head in shame as tears rise to his eyes, “Because it's my deepest secret and also my greatest sin!!!”

“Erh, listen, I don't judge those types of sins." Izuku can't believe he has to have this conversation, in front of Shinsou, nonetheless. "If you’re actually sorry about cheating on your girlfriend with her… step-mom… I’m not going to kill you.”

Not that Izuku would kill him for that in the first place. It sounded like they were all consenting adults so it’s really not Izuku’s place to judge-

“That's the thing, i'm not even sorry about cheating! I’m sorry that I’m never going to see Coco’s Step-mom again! Karen is so sexy....” Fitness buff number two trails off, drooling while the other three guys in the alley stare in a silent mix of horror and fascination.

“...”

“...”

“Okay nevermind, I’m seriously reconsidering killing you.” At Izuku's words the two fitness buffs return to pleading for mercy, “That was a joke. I’m not going to kill you two.” Izuku insists, if only to shut up number two’s incessant wailing about how sexy his girlfriend’s step-mom is.

“What?” number one gasps, “but the news said no one has ever survived the Heart Attack Killer’s touch before!”

Izuku shakes his head slowly, relishing the part that he plays. “You will be the first- I will give you one warning- and only one. Turn away from your life crime and tell no one of this, or I will be forced to visit punishment upon you.”

Izuku’s performedthis speech many times before. It doesn’t get to the real criminals, but sometimes it works on the fanatics and the less intelligent goons of the criminal underworld.

The fitness buffs nod frantically, but then number two asks, “Like, what specifically do you want us to stop doing, cause you know, me and Karen are going strong.”

Izuku rolls his eyes underneath his mask. Usually, in situations like these, his whole god-of-death act is intimidating that people don’t ask any questions. Izuku actually isn’t sure that he should be the one in charge of telling petty criminals how to act, so usually he just gives them the directive to be ‘better people” and hopes that they follow it. But apparently these two actually need Izuku to spell it out for them.

“Well, for starters, you should probably tell your girlfriend the truth. Even if you decide to stay with Karen, ummm Coco deserves an explanation, I guess? Healthy relationship, communication, honesty, all that stuff..” Izuku isn't exactly an relationship expert. Then he remembers that they’re in this situation because they were roughing up Shinsou, not because he cares about who this guy is dating. “and you guys shouldn’t try to harass people, even if they make you angry.” Thefitness buffs` nod frantically. “And another thing,” Izuku continues, “you should always treat employees in the service industry with respect! Especially people that work at gyms and restaurants and stores and stuff. They work really hard to help you have a better experience- usually for minimum wage and under awful work conditions! It’s super rude to yell at them or threaten them because you’re impatient or frustrated. You guys have to be understanding that they’re doing their best.”

From the fitness buff’s blank faces, Izuku thinks he probably lost them about mid-rant. Izuku shoos them off and they thank him, promising they won’t tell the police about him. Izuku already knows they won’t. On the occasion that he does let a criminal go free, Izuku always ensures that they won’t tell the police about him. The Heart Attack Killer is known for following through on his threats.

Izuku realizes then that he still has to deal with the other person in the alley. “Are you okay? Do you need me to call an ambulance?”

He usually checks in with people that look injured or in shock after he saves them. Normally people either freak out or, well… That’s pretty much the only reaction Izuku gets from civilians. He’s had to scare a few loud-mouthed people into silence so as to keep his identity a secret from the police. He’s not proud of his actions, but it’s not like he’d actually kill a civilian for telling the police about him. He just needs the civilians to think that he’ll kill them if they tell the police about him. It always leaves a gross feeling in his mouth to threaten an innocent, but Izuku can’t take any chances. Izuku shoves the journal deep down into his pocket, out of sight and out of mind. He won’t need it for this. At least Shinsou isn’t screaming or trying to run away. The purple haired boy is just holding very still, staring at Izuku like a spooked cat.

“Tell no one of what you’ve seen here…" Izuku hates this part but it’s necessary. He pulls his shoulders back, lowering his voice to sound a bit older."I find no pleasure in taking an innocent life, but that doesn’t mean I won’t make exceptions.”

“You practice that line in the mirror?” Shinsou breaks into a snort and Izuku can’t help but be offended (and not because he actually does practice his one-liners in the mirror).

“If I was a real villain you’d be dead right now!” Izuku is confused- doesn’t Shinsou understand that deflecting with humor at inappropriate times is what got him into this situation in the first place? Not to mention, Izuku knows several villains that would kill over something as petty as a perceived insult.

“So you don’t consider yourself a villain. You really are a vigilante!” Shinsou looks more excited than Izuku has seen in a long time.

“Just don’t tell anyone about this, okay? Please?” Izuku needs to switch tactics, intimidation clearly won’t work on Shinsou as his friend apparently does not value his continued existence.

In fact, Izuku’s friend looks completely thrilled to be in a dark alley talking to a serial killer and Japan’s most wanted. 

“I want to ask you some questions about what it’s like being an underage vigilante-”Of course Shinsou would find this exciting, and _of freaking course_ he would turn it into a Q&A session as well.

“How- how do you know I’m underage, not that I am… but why would you, uhh, think that?” Izuku has to hold back the stutter in his voice and does a miserable job of it.

Shinsou just smirks, “You sound young, and you’re pretty short. You can’t be older than a high school student. So about becoming a vigilante-”

“Don’t do it!” Interrupts Izuku, “I only do this because I have to! It’s the only way I can use my quirk to help people! If you want to help people, use your quirk to become a hero!”

Something dangerously close to admiration alights in Shinsou’s eyes, “You must have been told your whole life that you have an evil quirk. I too, have been outcast by society for having a villainous quirk.”

It's a habit for Izuku to respond when he hears his friend shooting himself down, “Shinsou, I think your quirk is really amazing!” However, while it might be normal coming from his best friend, it's certainly not normal coming from the Heart Attack Killer.

“How do you know what my quirk is?” Shinsou reponds, a sliver of distrust crossing his face.

“Uh…..” Izuku tries to backpedal but his mind goes blank. “Stay in school, kids.”

Izuku is fifteen minutes into this patrol and things have spiraled desperately out of control. Then things get immeasurably worse. Shinsou’s gaze snaps past Izuku and lets out a little gasp, just enough to make Izuku turn his head and look at whatever is happening behind him. Because Izuku is the unluckiest vigilante in Japan tonight, it’s none other than underground hero Eraserhead.

“Interesting advice from the Heart Attack Killer.” The white capture weapon disguised as a scarf, the black jumpsuit, the yellow goggles, the grouchy deposition; Izuku definitely knows this hero.

While the public may be enamored with flashy heroes like All Might, most serious villains and vigilantes- the ones that avoid capture for years or even decades- are more familiar with underground heroes. Underground heroes who can pass easily as a civilian pose the most risk to Izuku and other, less savory characters who are trying to keep their identities a secret. Izuku makes a point to stay up-to-date on the most active underground heroes, and Eraserhead consistently ranks at the top of that list. Really, Izuku should have known that this night would come eventually. He’s avoided the heroes for over seven years now. It was inevitable he’d slip up.

“Eraserhead, I presume?” Internally, Izuku winces at how nervous he sounds.

The hero glides forward in response and Izuku barely has time to dodge the white capture weapon as it shoots at him. Apparently the hero doesn’t like to spend time mincing words. Izuku needs to go now. He can’t afford to be captured, but he can’t exactly use his quirk on the hero either. Izuku doesn’t kill heroes any more- at least, not innocent ones just trying to do their jobs. Eraserhead’s hair floats up through the air as if gravity has stopped functioning and Izuku feels his grip on his quirk loosen, and then evaporate completely. The green-haired boy has lived with the constant presence of the Notebook in his mind for so long that his brain feels strangely hollow without it. Thankfully, the absence of his quirk doesn’t detract from his years of hard work to build muscle and speed. He gracefully dodges the scarf again and Eraserhead hums.

“So your quirk doesn’t affect your physical body. I had suspected a camouflage quirk of some type. Thought maybe the heart attack thing was just a gimmick to cover up the real quirk.”

“Unfortunately... no.” Izuku barely answers as he’s still busy dodging.

“So your quirk really does cause heart attacks… I suppose this was a case of Occam’s razor.” The capture weapon seems to have a life of its own and Eraserhead wields it expertly.

The ease with which Eraserhead manipulates his scarf to compliment his fighting style would have Izuku fanboying if it wasn’t currently aimed at him. Izuku is trapped with nowhere to go, Eraserhead blocking off the entrance to the alleyway. The man is keeping his erasure quirk constantly activated, probably not willing to risk looking away and giving Izuku a chance to use his quirk (not that Izuku would). Izuku’s not sure if he can take Eraserhead in hand-to-hand. Izuku knows the basics of street-fighting, but his physical ability lies in his speed, not in strength or finesse. If only he had room to run...

Izuku glances upwards.

It’s the only indicator of his plan before he’s running at the wall and launching himself up and over the dumpster, vaulting off the edge to grasp the lowest level of a fire escape jutting out from the cement wall. The rough metal cuts into his hands as he pulls himself up, but he ignores it, adrenaline fueling his muscles and raising his pain tolerance. He just has to get up the fire escape and on top of the buildings and he’s home free. He’s run the parkour route between work and home a million times. There’s no way Eraserhead will catch him- Except Izuku feels something wrap around his ankle and with a jarring yank he’s pulled off the fire escape and slams into the hard gravelly ground. Eraserhead is staring down at him, unimpressed, red eyes blazing through the yellow goggles.

“Don’t resist. It’s illogical.”

Izuku wants to laugh but his breath is sort of wheezing through his lungs too painfully for that. His back hit the ground pretty hard, and detachedly, he thinks he might have cracked something. Is this how it ends for the Heart Attack Killer? Taken down in seconds by the first hero he comes across that he can’t just run away from?

“I’m sorry. All I want to do is help people.” Izuku whimpers, his voice cracking pathetically.

“I know. I heard that conversation earlier.” Eraserhead grimaces and Izuku realizes it's some twisted form of sympathy mixed withan unidentified emotion.

The man wraps Izuku up tightly with the scarf. Izuku can feel the corner of the Notebook digging into his leg.

“How old are you? Listen, if you’re underage there’s a chance you could get a pretty good deal in court, but you have to work with me.”

Izuku had heard that, despite his grouchy, sleep-deprived act, Eraserhead is a decent person. He’s glad to see that it’s true, even if it’s under these unfortunate circumstances. The man is trying to encourage Izuku, giving him a sliver of hope. As if someone could know his quirk and not hate him immediately. As if Izuku could live the rest of his life in some cell in Tartarus. As if the government won’t immediately have him killed for his crimes and his quirk.

“It doesn’t matter.” Izuku mutters, “I know I’m too dangerous to be left alive.” Izuku is convinced that his days are numbered until help arrives in an unlikely form.

“Erashead!” Shinsou rushes at the hero, “I’m a huge fan!”

“Please step back.” Eraserhead informs Shinsou without looking away from Izuku.

Izuku watches as the man freezes, he grip on the scarf loosening. Eraserhead's quirk shuts itself off, if his hair floating gently downwards is any indication.

“Release the Heart Attack Killer.” Shinsou is staring at Izuku, fierce determination on his face. “Forget about seeing either of us. Leave the alley, and then count to 1000 before waking up.”

Eraserhead mindlessly stumbles out of the alley, leaving a confused Izuku lying on the ground.

“People will never accept me with this quirk.” Shinsou explains. “So I’m going to become like you, a vigilante who helps people by inspiring fear with your quirk- a symbol of justice.”

Izuku stares at his friend, wondering just how well he knows Shinsou. In that moment, he’s never been more appreciative of the mask hiding his expression.

“Why would you save me?, I’m- I’m not a good person.” Izuku can comprehend wanting to be a vigilante, but what he doesn’t get is why Shinsou would put himself at risk like this. “If you’re caught helping me, you’ll be labeled a criminal.”

“You saved me today. I’m just returning the favor.” Maybe Shinsou does value his life just a little because he doesn’t stick around to see what Izuku’s response will be.

Instead he ducks out of the alleyway past the still counting form of Eraserhead. Izuku is left wondering what the hell just happened.

_Maybe celebrating with a bowl of Katsudon instead of a patrol was the right decision after all._

…

After the unfortunate night, Izuku decides to take a break from patrolling the streets, due in no small part to the fact that his lungs still wheeze painfully whenever he has to sprint. He spends a very uncomfortable night tossing and turning in homemade bandages, swearing off any attempted parkour for the next decade. He makes up for lost time by putting in extra effort to hunt down people over the internet that really deserve a spot in his Notebook. There are forums full of people pleading for help that he can save without ever leaving his bedroom (or sitting up or standing up, or walking down the stairs).

...

Before he knows it, the date comes when the UA associate comes to visit Quirk Fitness Solutions. Izuku has spent hours preparing mentally and is confident he can provide a thorough analysis of any heroes’ quirk. However, when the “high paying customer” walks through the door, he’s nothing like Izuku would have imagined. He’s not a hero in the top 100 (Izuku has them memorized). In fact, with his gaunt frame and wracking coughs, the man looks like he could be knocked over with a slight gust of wind. The sick looking man explains that he works with UA, and that the hero school is interested in possibly collaborating with Quirk Fitness Solutions in the future. Izuku is simultaneously relieved and devastated. He realizes that he had been looking forward to meeting a hero (that wasn't hunting him) and getting to talk with them about their quirk quite a bit. The manager seems to take note of Izuku’s dejectedness, because he shoves the green haired boy towards the tall, UA associate with a bright smile.

“And this is Izuku Midoriya, one of the best quirk analysts we have!”

“Uhh, Hi, Hello, sir.” Izuku stutters out with a nervous glance back at the manager.

“He may seem young, but I’ve found it helps some of the kids to have an employee their age to talk to! Not to mention his quirk analysis is always brilliant!” The manager makes a flapping motion with his hand as if saying, “do your thing!”

To the credit of the UA associate, he doesn’t look bored or judgemental, merely curious.

“Don’t look so nervous, my boy! Call me Mr. Toshinori.” Even though Mr. Toshinori looks sickly, his personality seems warm and enthusiastic. It sets Izuku at ease- maybe this won’t be too bad. All Izuku has to do is impress Mr.Toshinori, make sure Quirk Fitness Solutions gets recognized by UA, and not lose his job.

“Right. Nice to meet you.” Izuku says with a bow. “May I analyze your quirk for an example, sir?”

The tall man blanches and shuts down Izuku’s hopes of proving himself with a hasty, “I really prefer not to talk about my quirk.”

“Oh. sorry.” Izuku has to fight back tears at the blatant rejection.

He thought that Mr. Toshinori looked curious, but maybe he misjudged him? Maybe the tall man is unimpressed by some no-name middle school kid when he sees the children of famous heroes everyday. What if Izuku has just ruined this entire deal for the gym? Quirk Fitness Solutions will have to close out of shame and they’ll never re-open, and it will be all Izuku’s fault. As Izuku panics internally, he completely misses the guilt on Toshinori’s face as he sees how upset the middle schooler is.

“Oh dear, how about I give you a hypothetical situation, and you can analyze that for me.”

Izuku perks up at the second chance. “Of course!”

“So, hypothetically speaking, let’s say a … student… has a strength enhancing quirk. However the student suffers a grievous injury. And afterwards, due to an injury, the quirk becomes much weaker and there’s a time limit on how long the student can keep their quirk active. How would you suggest they overcome this problem?”

“Hmm… This situation is oddly vague, although I wonder if that’s part of the test… I can ask questions about the student right?” Izuku mutters, jumping into analysis mode.

“Uh, it’s not really a test, but sure.” Mr. Toshinori coughs nervously.

“Well,” Izuku starts, “ I’m assuming that this isn’t an injury that can be healed by someone like Recovery Girl?”

“Healing quirks were unable to heal the student’s body, making them unable to channel their quirk properly.” Mr. Toshininori shakes his head.

“In that case,” Izuku mumbles, “Quirk therapy might be worth a shot, although it’s not always effective at recovering full use of a person’s damaged quirk. If the issue is actually the time limit, there are ways around that. Quirks that slow the passage of time or slow down the physical processes of the body have been used as an alternative medicinal quirks to prevent further damage after an injury. I know plenty of quirk therapists that would jump at a chance to work with UA students. On top of that, physical therapy has come a long way as well. I would have to meet them to develop a specific program, but I would suggest at least a couple of months of QT and PT before jumping back into their heroics training. ”

“Well, uh, maybe the student doesn’t want to go to therapy.” Mr. Toshinori suggests sheepishly. “It can be a bit uncomfortable for heroes to admit they need help’”

“Does UA just expect this student to deal with a potentially life-threatening injury on their own?” Izuku levels a confused look at Mr.Toshinori. “And wouldn’t the student want to get quirk therapy if it could help them recover? If this student wants to become a hero, shouldn’t they be willing to do anything- whatever it takes- to become strong enough to save people… Even if it’s uncomfortable or they think others wouldn’t understand?”

Izuku suddenly realizes he’s been ranting to Mr. Toshinori and his heart sinks at the taken-back look on the older man’s face. If Izuku hadn’t ruined their chances before, he’s completely obliterated them now-

“Impressive, my boy!” The man grins and Izuku’s nervousness evaporates and he beams at the praise. “That sort of spirit is exactly why we want to hire people like you to help our students. Say, what’s your quirk! Are you considering UA?”

Izuku shrinks a little at the questioning.

"My quirk isn’t quite suited for the hero course. It’s not terribly powerful or anything. I call it Death Date.”

“An ominous sounding name.” Mr. Toshinori remarks.

Izuku shrugs. “ It allows me to see when someone will die.”

The older man pales, the blood draining from his already gaunt face. “Midoriya, you haven’t by chance….”

“Used it on you?” Izuku asks with a quirked eyebrow.

He's is more than used to this reaction to his “quirk.” Death isn’t a comfortable topic for most people, especially the subject of their own death. However, it seems Mr. Toshinori at least has the decency to look ashamed at his reaction because he offers an apologetic grin.

“Don’t worry, Mr. Toshinori, I don’t ever use it on people without their permission. That’s why I want to work in the hero industry though, my quirk allows me to understand and make judgements about life-and-death decisions that others can’t.”

“I’m not quite sure I follow, my boy.”

“Well, sometimes if I know when people will die, I can do something prevent their death from happening. Gain them extra time, so to speak.” Izuku explains. "Sometimes it's small things, but It's pretty versatile."

Toshinori is silent. He has a far away look on his face as he gazes at Izuku, and the boy gets the feeling that he’s seeing somebody else.

“So the future can be changed.” He finally says. “That is a powerful quirk indeed, young Midoriya.”

_You have no idea, the voice in Izuku’s head responds_.

...

Izuku Midoriya isn’t sure how this happened, but he doesn't know why he didn't expect it. What else could top this week off better than a villain attack? One minute he was walking home from his after-school job, basking in the success of having impressed a representative from one of the most prestigious hero schools in Japan, and the next, he was being enveloped in a warm disgusting-smelling liquid. Even worse, the vile sludge appeared to be sentient.

“A medium-sized disguise.” It purred, “This will do just fine.”

_A villain attack_. Izuku’s brain chimed in belatedly. _This is a villain attack_. Sorry, but Izuku isn’t going to become anybody’s disguise, not if the Heart Attack Killer had anything to say about it. He reaches for the journal, ever present in his pocket, but in retaliation the slime wraps its hands(?) (tentacles?) around his arm, restraining his movement.

“No, no. I don’t know what your quirk is but I’m not taking any chances. Be a good boy and hold still.”

In response the green-haired teen starts kicking and screaming, as much as he can with the villain trying to force his gelatinous body up Izuku’s nose. Izuku pounds his fists against the villain in resistance, but his hands merely sink the sludge villain’s body, the texture something like silly putty. Izuku tries to run but his movements are slowed by the mass. _He’s got to have a weakness_ Izku thinks to himself. His body doesn’t seem solid, what’s holding him together? Maybe he has internal organs he can target through his body?

“Stop struggling, brat!” The voice of the monster instructs him, but Izuku only flails about more as he hopes his fist will connect with something sensitive.

_I didn’t get a good enough look at him to aim!_ Izuku’s thoughts grow panicked as his oxygen is completely shut off, the need to breathe stifling his mental process just as much as his body is physically choked by the vile sludge. The jostling of the villain is making his ribs, which had finally started to heal, flare up again in horrible pain. His eyes flash to his jacket pocket. Inside is a pen and, of course, the Notebook, merely a useless weight without somebody to write in it. Izuku doesn’t even know the villain’s name- he couldn’t write it down if he wanted to! His thoughts and movements start to slow as the asphyxiation takes a toll on his body. His arms, already sore from flailing against the hold, start to feel heavy. Is this it? Is this how he dies? Some nobody with a slime quirk who doesn’t even know Izuku’s identity is going to take down the most notorious serial killer in Japan.

However, fate has other plans. Izuku is saved by All Might. The blonde hero is larger than life and every bit as majestic as Izuku imagined him and yes, Izuku may be having a bit of a fanboy moment. He’s determined not to let the residual guilt of knowing that All Might would probably arrest him if he knew Izuku’s true identity ruin the joy of meeting his favorite hero. Heck, Izuku even got to watch his favorite hero annihilate the slime villain and stuff him into a couple soda bottles! Izuku only panics a little bit when All Might autographs the Notebook without asking, but the hero seems to give the inconspicuous-looking journal no more than a passing glance (And he signs it All Might, of course, so no harm is done). Izuku is ecstatic to have the autograph, but he quickly realizes that he can’t exactly show it off, because of obvious reasons. Izuku hopes that All Might doesn’t mind him asking for a second autograph.

Except All Might is about to leave and Izuku can’t let this opportunity slip through his fingers- literally. He holds on tight to one of All Might’s legs as the man leaps through the air and one thing leads to another. Before he knows it, Izuku is standing on a rooftop learning that the number one hero is dying.

And that he works for UA apparently.

Oh, and Izuku technically already met him once today.

“Midoriya my boy, you’re taking this surprisingly well.” All Might looks uncomfortable as heck, and Izuku sympathizes, but not enough to keep his mouth shut because he opens it and-

“You’re the student. The one you asked about earlier today. The one with the time limit.” Izuku realizes as he puts the pieces together.

All Might grimaces, letting out a bloody cough that he dabs with a handkerchief produced from his pocket. The conversation is so stilted and this day is already so weird that Izuku decides, how much worse can it get; he asks a question that’s been burning in the back of his consciousness for years now.

“All Might-”

“Please just call me Toshinori when I’m like this.”

“Mr.Toshinori, the villain that did this to you- did he kill a lot of people?”

All Might’s face shifts from awkward to solemn as he replies, “Countless lives were lost at his hands. However, you can rest easy knowing that he died in the battle, and he can never hurt anyone ever again.”

“But do you think he could have changed? That he could have been redeemed somehow?”

“What?” All Might practically chokes the word, nervously coughing into his hand. “Young man, I don’t think you understand the depths of villainy this man had sunk to. The world is truly a better place without him.”

Izuku catches sight of the blood dotting All Might’s palms and lips and wonders. “Aren’t even the worst villains deserving of a second chance?”

Izuku prays that the answer is one he can live with, even if he’s not sure exactly what that is. A yes? A no? All Might opens his mouth as if to answer, and then closes it. He opens it again, sighs, and then closes it once more. The effect is akin to a giant, gaping goldfish.

“I’m not sure I’m qualified to answer that, my boy.” All Might quickly spits out, and then the hero is gone before Izuku can ask any more uncomfortable questions.

“If you aren’t,” Izuku mutters, “then who is?”

The only response is the wind breezing through his hair.

...

Only hours later, Izuku is standing in the midst of a crowd, watching as the slime villain he had narrowly avoided earlier chokes the life out of some poor middle school boy. Izuku sourly wonders if the villain escaped All Might just to spite him. Izuku is 100% done. It's been a very long stressful day and he would like to go home now, please. Except he can't because the boy in question isn't a random student, it’s a face that he hasn’t seen since kindergarten. Izuku needs a someone to check if he's dreaming because his week keeps getting weirder and weirder.

Katsuki Bakugou hasn’t changed in the last decade, at least that Izuku can tell. The blonde haired boy is struggling loudly, shouting curses almost as loudly as his quirk. Explosions, familiar but also strange, spark through the air, dancing harmlessly around the gelatinous body of the villain. Izuku feels a strange sense of nostalgia and vindication at seeing the former bully struggle. Of course, there are plenty of heroes in the crowd, it’s not like Bakugou is actually in any danger... or so Izuku assumes. Yet as Izuku looks at the by-standers, he notices that none of them are moving. He recognizes at least three pro heroes in the crowd, but none of them have made a move to help Katsuki yet. Their quirks aren't "suitable."

It’s understandable that a hero who is a bad match-up for a certain villain would wait for someone better equipped to arrive, even though its the kind of behavior that’s made Izuku question the hero industry in the first place. Sure, Izuku loves heroes, and in a different world with a better quirk, Izuku is sure he’d try to become a hero himself. However, Izuku wouldn’t have become a vigilante if the hero industry wasn’t a little bit broken in the first place. He understands that being a hero isn’t always rushing in to save the day, quirks blasting full force. On a whim, Izuku activates his quirk.

_Katsuki Bakugou: 2 minutes, 34 seconds_

Whatever line of reasoning he had been considering before, Izuku’s body moves before he can even think. He pulls out the Notebook, it’s opened to the page with All Might’s signature. For a second he considers rushing the villain, but there’s no guarantee Izuku would win that fight. He already knows that the slime villain will negate his normal hit-and-run tactics, and even if he has the advantage of surprise this time, Izuku isn’t willing to call that attention to himself with news cameras near by and recording the event. Izuku shuffles the Notebook between his hands, fumbling for a pencil in his pocket. There aren’t any. He pulls his backpack off his shoulder and begins searching through pockets. Of all the times to forget a writing utensil, why now?! He can’t waste any time, so while he searches he looks up to learn the villain’s name- and catches sight of the numbers floating above Bakugou’s head.

_2 minutes, 15 seconds_ There are no pencils in his bag. The pen in his pocket is dry, only leaving a disheartening scratch on the paper. The pen that All Might borrowed is nowhere to be found. The hero must have accidentally kept it after he autographed the Notebook.

“Hey! Do you have a pencil?” Izuku asks the man standing next to him.

“Ask your parents to buy you school supplies.” The man ignores him, more focused on the fight.

_2 minutes_

“Wow, that poor kid.” An older lady in the crowd mutters to no one in particular.

Izuku seizes on the opportunity, “Yeah, it sucks, do you have a pencil I can borrow?”

“Er, sorry dear.”

_1 minute 51_ _seconds_

Izuku is about to prick his finger on his knife-tie pin and write the villain’s name in his own blood when he spots blond hair out of the corner of his eye.

“Mr.Toshinori!” Izuku is yelling and sprinting through the crowd, but thankfully most onlookers are too absorbed in the drama to pay him any attention.

The man startles as Izuku grabs him by the arms and nearly shouts, “GIVE. ME. BACK. MY. PEN.”

“Young Midoriya, now is hardly the time. There’s a boy in trouble-”

“I know he’s in trouble!” Izuku has the sense to lower his voice, “According to my quirk, he has 1 minute and 28 seconds left to live unless you give me back my pen, please.”

All Might’s face darkens instantly as he understands what Izuku is saying, and for a second Izuku is afraid that the frail man (and isn’t it terrifying to think of All Might as frail, especially in a situation like this one?) is going to rush into the fight. But maybe he sees something in Izuku’s gaze, because he fishes through his pocket and hands Izuku his pen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for poor quality and lateness. I tried to make up for it with quantity ;P   
> I just was lacking motivation to do anything this week. Hard to write when I don't even get out of bed most days. Don't worry, I'm still going to meet my goal of 1 chapter per week. Anyways, I have a few more weeks until school starts, and then I will be moving to every other week.


	8. Eat This

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I lied.

Toshinori feels guilty, but really, what’s new? He feels guilty every time he sees a person hurting or dying on television and he knows he can’t save them. Adjusting to a measly three and a half hour time limit (if that) for his heroics hasn’t gotten any easier in the past years.

However, this is the sort of situation that makes Toshinori’s guilt extra hard to stomach, as if All for One is mashing up his insides with a blender. He had been on his way to the police station after rescuing Midoriya when he had discovered that he had dropped the soda bottles. The soda bottles that contained the villain. The villain that had attacked Midoriya. They probably fell out of his pocket at some point, but it still hurts his pride that the villain got away without him noticing. Feeling foolish, he continues on his way while contemplating a text from Nighteye, which in of itself is unusual due to their falling out years earlier.

Then he runs across the villain and the boy again. This time the disgusting sludge creature has a blond boy in his grasp. The child is mere meters away, but the sight of several pro heroes in the crowd (and there is an inconvenient crowd this time) reassures Toshinori. Even if this angry blonde child is in danger and it’s all All Might’s fault, the other heroes will clean up the mess this time. It’s a bit of a relief, really. His powers have been well exhausted, not to mention that making a television appearance right now would be a bother.

All Might is far too aware of the fact that he had to rescue Midoriya from the very same villain once already, using up precious hours of transformation time. Maybe he could squeeze a few more minutes from his already broken and battered body. No. It’s been a long day. All Might spent most of the day stressing about the interview with the quirk fitness gym. He’s not a teacher at UA yet, but Nezu thought it would be a good idea for him to get involved with the school more, especially if he was going to look for his successor on campus. Nezu was also trying to pressure him into taking a break from being a hero and focusing on recovery- hence why he had sent All Might to talk to the quirk trainer and not some other, more qualified hero.

Nezu insists that if All Might just takes a break from hero-ing, focuses on rest and rehabilitation and just being Toshinori, it might give his quirk a chance to heal up a little more. Toshinori has to admit- it is easier than pushing himself to his rapidly shortening limit every day. It’s easier to turn away and pretend he’s a normal civilian...

Until a familiar voice lances through the rumbles and whispers of the crowd.

It’s Midoriya, the third time he’s run into the boy this day. Toshinori isn’t one to believe in zodiac charts or God or fate, but if he did, he would only assume that some unknown omnipotent force really wants him to meet the Midoriya boy today. Said broccoli-headed child is pushing through the crowd, panic in his voice and body language. Then Midoriya catches sight of Toshinori and the tall blonde hero feels his heart sink in his chest.

‘ _Don’t come over here._ ’ He wills silently.

Toshinori hasn’t developed mind control or telepathy recently because Midoriya struggles through the crowd to him and stops at his feet. Toshinori resigns himself to making one more surprise appearance today. He’d almost be peeved, if that wasn't such an un-heroic emotion. All he wants to do is worry about his successor in peace, but instead this Midoriya kid has been hounding him all day!

Alright, so maybe it’s not the boy’s fault that they keep running into each other. Toshinori is annoyed on the principle of the matter; Midoriya is going to expect him to do something, and because he’s All Might, he won’t be able to refuse. So when Midoriya opens his mouth to speak Toshinori expects a cry for assistance.

Or a condemnation for standing there and doing nothing.

Or a plea for help.

Instead, Midoriya takes in a deep breath and says rather forcefully, “GIVE. ME. BACK. MY. PEN.”

Toshinori’s brain stops short. He must have taken the boy’s pen out of habit after he autographed his notebook. Yet even as Toshinori sheepishly digs through his pockets, looking for the offending utensil, he can’t help but feel guilt build up in his chest at his relief that Midoriya didn't call him out on his inaction. Isn’t Midoroiya going to expect All Might to save the day? That’s what any normal person would do in this situation.

“This is hardly the time-”

“I know he’s in trouble!” Izuku has the sense to lower his voice, but All Might is still taken back by the outburst. “He has 1 minute and 28 seconds left to live unless you give me back my pen, please.”

In the background Toshinori is vaguely aware of the blonde child kicking and screaming. The boy that is about to die. Will die, if he doesn’t do anything. Immediately Toshinori feels a deep-seated sense of self-loathing wash over him. If Midoriya wasn’t here to warn him, he would have continued about his day, letting an innocent child die when he had the power to stop it.

However, Midoriya isn’t looking to Toshinori to save the day- no, the look on Midoriya’s face is a fierce determination to do it his own way. Midoriya is holding out a hand expectantly and Toshinori isn’t sure exactly what the green haired middle-school student plans to do with a pen and a notebook. From what the boy has explained of his quirk earlier that day (was it really only a few hours ago?) the boy only has a minor precognition quirk. In a fight like this, he’s practically quirkless.

Then All Might looks- really looks- at this strange boy who he keeps running into again and again. Midoriya, framed by the chaos of the villain attack and the curious crowd, is completely calm and unwavering. He has the look of a person who is willing to do whatever it takes to help someone. It’s a look All Might has seen on the faces of his colleagues as they head into battle. Toshinori realizes that Izuku isn’t trying to guilt him into helping the blond boy- he’s offering up his own abilities. Is this what the boy meant when he talked about being able to change things? To give people more time?

Toshinori find the pen. He holds it out. Anticlimatically, Izuku snatches the pen from his hand, scribbles a phrase down in his notebook, and then takes off running.

 _'Huh_.'

Toshinori is confused. Disappointed even. He must have been imagining the heroic look on the boy’s face. Or that’s what he thinks until one of the onlookers in the crowd cries out in alarm.

"Look!" An elderly lady shouts, catching his attention. "That disgusting thing just let go of the poor kid."

The child is ushered to safety by the heroes on the scene, and the villain- so belligerent seconds before- meekly submits himself to custody. A minute passes. Another. And another. Toshinori counts to a minute and 28 seconds and the blonde teen is still alive and kicking (literally). The crowd starts to break up as emergency services arrive. One of the heroes offers to phone the blonde boy’s parents and the child shrugs him off, insisting he’s uninjured.

Midoriya had claimed the boy had a mere moments left to live. Instead of doing anything about it, the young man had run off to who-knows-where and the situation had resolved itself. Perhaps his quirk is occasionally incorrect. Or maybe- just maybe, there’s more to this that Toshinori is missing. Perhaps Midoriya did more than Toshinori knows- not all quirks are as flashy and noticeable as One for All.

' _This is certainly strange_.' Toshinori thinks to himself as a police officer instructs a submissive slime villain to enter a police car.

Unbidden, a snippet of conversation replays itself in All Might’s head. Midoriya did claim that if he knows when people will die, he can prevent their death from happening. It leaves Japan's number one hero with a lot to think about.

…

Izuku rushes past the crowd, half scribbling his instructions down as he speed walks away from the scene and a very confused looking All Might.

This was stupid of him. So incredibly stupid.

If he kills people in plain sight the chances of him being caught go up exponentially…. But it doesn’t stop him from writing frantically into his Notebook. He can’t allow Bakugou to die.

 _… releases the boy he’s holding captive and surrenders to the police, without resisting or harming anyone else in the process. Dies a week later, of an accident._ Izuku finishes the brief paragraph before attaching the sludge villain’s real name to the top.

He glances up and sees the number above Bakugou’s head blur and become unreadable before settling on a much longer lifespan. Well, longer than a few seconds at least. Thank goodness for Izuku’s experimentation with the Notebook, or else Izuku wouldn’t have been able to come up with this plan on the fly. While Izuku favors heart attacks as the default setting of his Notebook, he’s played around with the Notebook before and discovered that he can subtly manipulate the circumstances of death, resulting in the person dying of a different cause.

This extends, weirdly enough, to manipulating the actions of the person up to three weeks beforehand. It’s not always foolproof, and it takes a little more time and planning to come into effect, but it hasn’t failed him yet when he needs to kill without alerting the public to his actions as the Heart Attack Killer. As Izuku continues to speed walk away from the crowd, he looks back and catches sight of Bakugou gasping on the ground, mercifully free of the slime villain who is being escorted away by the police who were too afraid to interfere only moments earlier. A hero approaches Bakugou and Izuku looses sight of him in the crowd.

More worrying is All Might’s eyes, drilling into the back of Izuku’s head as he flees the scene of the villain attack. Izuku rushes home, feeling strangely exposed as he walks the familiar streets. He hasn’t used his quirk- the killing part of it anyways- in front of people in a while. Certainly not in front of a hero that knows his identity. Could All Might suspect who he is? Izuku tells himself he’s being paranoid. The hero would have no reason to assume that Izuku killed the sludge villain- he’s not even scheduled to die for another seven days.

That one week buffer ought to give Izuku enough time to let suspicion die down. Obviously he didn’t kill the sludge villain with a heart attack- an accident should seem a completely normal, if karmic, way for the sludge villain to pass out of existence. Hopefully, by the time the sludge villain does die, All Might will have forgotten about Izuku by then. This proves to be a miscalculation, because as Izuku passes through the darkening streets, he's cut off by the figure of All Might dashing through the alleyway.

“I AM HERE!”

“All Might!?” Izuku yelps nervously, stumbling backwards.

The first thoughts that run through Izuku’s mind are understandably panicky.

_'Oh no, he knows. I’m going to prison. I’ll never get a chance to atone for my crimes!'_

But then Izuku realizes All Might isn’t making a move to arrest him. In fact, All Might just coughs and deflates back into his lanky, underweight form.

“Young Midoriya, earlier today you told me you could use your quirk to change the future.”

“Eh… I didn’t say that exactly.” Izuku’s body is filled with apprehension, and he focuses on the cherry blossom petals caught in the light of the sinking sun instead of his hero's face.

If Izuku is about to be taken to prison, at least he'll get to see one last sunset.

“I- just… My quirk isn’t really a hero’s quirk. It hurts people.” It feels strangely cathartic for Izuku to say it out loud.

“Yet you used this quirk to stop that villain, didn’t you? You told me Bakugou would die today, but even as I watched you walk away, the villain mysteriously released the boy. Unless I’m mistaken, you did that.”

“I can explain, All Might, er- I mean- Toshinori, sir.”

“Your quirk isn’t what it appears.”

Midoriya feels his heart freeze. This is it.

“Yes.” He clenches a fist and mentally prepares himself for the demands of explanation and the condemnation that will surely follow.

Izuku isn’t sure about lying his way out of this situation. Oh he could. Lying is second nature after spending so long hiding his ridiculously powerful, villainous quirk from friends and family alike. Izuku’s just not sure if he should. Izuku finds that he doesn’t want to lie to All Might. He’s going to get caught eventually. Wouldn’t it be easier to be arrested now, when he just used his quirk to help save Bakugou? Wouldn’t it make sense to give himself up to All Might, a hero that knows Izuku (however briefly) and has a personal connection with him? Wouldn’t the justice system be more forgiving of a middle schooler with an awful quirk and a broken sense of justice than it would be five years from now when he’s legally an adult?

He hangs his head in acceptance of his fate.

 _You want this to end before you can get your hopes up. You want your dream to be crushed before it ever begins. You don’t believe that you could actually be a hero._ The little voice in Midoriya’s head is accusing.

Yet to Midoriya’s surprise, Toshinori’s demands for an explanation never come.

Instead, the older man smiles and says, “It would be hypocritical of me to demand to know everything about you and your quirk. But I would ask this one thing. When you ran to save that boy, was it like your body moved before you could even think?”

Izuku’s head snaps up and he meets All Might’s eyes.

"That’s something that a great many heroes have in common. When someone is in danger, their bodies move before they can think.”

Izuku may be the number one vigilante, but he swears he sees something familiar reflected in the gaze of the number one hero. A tear rolls down his cheek and he’s not sure if it’s from the warm feeling growing in his chest or the sheer relief that courses through him at All Might’s words.

“Young man, I don’t know why you would hide the full extent of your quirk in your daily life, or what could possibly cause you to compare yourself to the villain who did this to me.” All Might gestures to his shrunken form and Izuku winces.

He thinks back to the question he had asked All Might earlier- if the villain that had nearly killed All Might could ever be redeemed. Izuku had never explicitly given a reason for that question, but he supposed All Might had seen Izuku’s dejected expression when he had given his half-hearted answer. He had hoped All Might wouldn’t pick up on that, but the hero is apparently smarter than Izuku gave him credit for.

“But what I do know is that you used your quirk to save someone today. You seem to have a low opinion of yourself, Izuku Midoriya, but when I watched you take action today, I couldn’t help but think- you too, can become a hero.”

Izuku- Heart Attack Killer, villain, and Japan’s most wanted vigilante- breaks into a mess of happy tears and gasping sobs because someone finally tells him they believe in him, even if they never answered the question he asked in the first place.

...

It becomes somewhat of a habit for Izuku to run into All Might, or more often, Mr. Toshinori. The man starts up an unlikely acquaintanceship (dare he say friendship) with Izuku. It’s unexpected but not unwelcome. Maybe it’s foolish of Izuku to start spending so much time around a hero that’s seen him use his deadly quirk up close, but for goodness sakes it’s All Might!

All Might wants to hang out with weird, creepy Izuku.

All Might believes Izuku can become a hero.

All MIght wants to help him become a hero!

After their fourth run in of the day, All Might had explained a little about looking for a successor- someone to pass his “sacred torch” onto. The thing is, Izuku’s not really sure if he wants to take the hero's mantle for his own sake or All Might's. Even as the man offers to help him train to get into UA, Izuku gets the feeling that he's lying to the man who has been so kind and understanding.

Still, Izuku isn’t about to turn down an offer from the number one hero.

“Cleaning up Dagobah beach is a perfect way to train for becoming a hero! We have a few months until the UA entrance exam, but if you start now you can do it!”

“Mr. Toshinori, there’s no way I can clean this all up.” Izuku is covering his mouth and nose with a sleeve because the debris filled beach smells awful.

The beach is small but packed with trash. It’s seriously disgusting. Worse than most of the alleyways Izuku has been in- and Izuku has visited some truly vile alleyways. Trash and refuse and rot combine together to create a stench that nearly has the boy gagging, and the beach stretches for nearly a mile.

“Don’t be ridiculous. With that spirit you’ll never become a hero!”

Izuku wants to insist that he never explicitly stated that he wants to be a hero. But that would be a lie because deep down, he knows he does want to go to UA and become a hero that’s loved, not a villain that’s feared. Izuku had been planning to apply for the school anyways. His grades are good enough to get into the general education course, and he heard they had a great detective track.

Detectives, investigators, and police officers are essential partners of the hero industry after all, so it makes sense that quite a few have come out of UA. But now that Izuku has a pro hero in his corner, he can’t help but imagine what it would be like to become a hero. The very idea had seemed ludicrous after his quirk had manifested, but now that Izuku has the support of someone who believes so whole-heartedly in him, Izuku finds himself imagining a world where the Heart Attack Killer fades into obscurity and is replaced by a hero beloved by all.

So Izuku spends his evenings hauling trash across sandy, gross smelling shores. It eats into his allotted time for patrolling the streets, but that’s alright. The Heart Attack Killer can regulate crime just as efficiently from his bedroom as he can from the sidewalk. A small part of him, however, does miss the rush that comes from coming face-to-face with criminals.

The late night parkour.

The thrill of the chase.

The heady feeling of power that courses through his veins when criminals recognize him and whisper his name with absolute terror-

Izuku shoves that last thought back into the box reserved for his more villainous impulses. He focuses on hauling a trash bag across the beach towards a nearby dumpster. A few weeks into the “American Dream Plan”, during a particularly grueling session where Toshinori is lecturing about the importance of diet whilst riding on top of a particularly large piece of sheet metal (pulled by Izuku) the green haired boy brings up a thought.

“Why is my deadline for the UA entrance exam. You aren’t expecting me to get into the hero course right off the bat.”

“What do you mean?” All Might seems genuinely lost. “I’ve been designing these workouts with the hero course in mind.”

“Well, my quirk isn’t good for physical fights. It’s not really good for anything except a life-or-death situation. My best chance of getting into the hero course is during the sports festival.” Technically true statements- Izuku hasn’t revealed much information yet about his quirk, but thankfully All Might hasn’t asked. “So there’s no way I’d make it past the entrance exam because everyone knows it’s designed to favor physical quirks.”

If Izuku is cautious however, he may be able to open up (just a tiny bit) to the man.

“Izuku my boy, that’s why I’m giving you my quirk!”

“But All Might, have you really considered if I’m the best option for a successor?” Izuku shakes his head, pausing in his rigorous exercise to get a drink from his water bottle.

“Ehhhh…” All Might winces sheepishly.

It's a small thing, but that simple, monosyllabic response triggers so much fear in Izuku. It reminds him that All Might really knows next-to-nothing about him. Izuku can’t explain that his quirk is villainous to All Might. His quirk is only useful in a life or death situation because his quirk allows him to choose between life and death- a power that nobody, certainly not a middle school boy, should be in possession of. His quirk, by its very nature, will always keep Izuku from becoming a true hero. He will forever be a villain in the eyes of the law and his own eyes thanks to his quirk.

“Midoriya, if you don’t mind me asking, just what is your qui-”

Whenever All Might brings up this question, Izuku cuts him off in the same way.

“All Might, please don’t ask me that.” Izuku winces at how much like a broken record he sounds.

All Might frowns and insists, “My boy, whatever your quirk may be, it’s not evil. You used it to save a life, remember?."

Izuku wonders if All Might ever looked into the sludge villain after the whole incident. A week after the villain was arrested, there was a mishap with the temperature in his containment cell and the poor villain literally evaporated to death. Izuku almost wishes he’d been more specific in the manner that the villain had died. It was probably excruciatingly agonizing and Izuku did it to the villain just to save his former best friend’s skin.

But Izuku can’t exactly confess that, so instead he shrugs and says, “Maybe I can use Death Date to help people who are in immediate or future danger, but the rest of it- It’s not a hero’s quirk.” 

Izuku resumes pulling the sheet metal and a now pensive All Might.

“There may be a way around this issue.” All Might finally advises “Once your body is strong enough to inherit my quirk, close quarters combat shouldn’t be a problem. Still, it’s important that you practice using your own quirk as well.”

Izuku makes a vague sound of agreeance. He wonders if he should tell All Might that he does practice with his quirk, nearly every day; that would probably bring up far too many questions.

...

Izuku doesn’t plan to tell his family about his dilemma, or All Might, or the training. His mother is gone so often due to her physical therapy visits that she isn’t that aware of Izuku’s social life. Izuku doesn’t hold it against her. She needs to focus on her health. Izuku encourages it, even (it makes it easier to spend all night finding new targets to write about in his Notebook).

Inko does her best to be active in his life, but it’s difficult for her when she spends most of her day at the hospital or under bedrest. The Noboru’s, however, are under no such restrictions.

“Hey Izuku, you're gonna apply for UA, right?” It’s Yumi who raises the subject, and over Noboru family dinner night nonetheless.

Even after Izuku had moved out of the Noboru’s home, he had remained friends with the family. Due to his close friendship with Shinsou and the fact that he continued attending the same school as he and Rei, it wasn’t that unusual for him to spend time with the family, often going over to their house for dinner- so much so that it became a weekly occurrence, termed “family dinner night” by the other kids.

Izuku appreciates the support that the Nobrou family provides him, that they still accept him as a part of their lives even though they aren’t beholden to care for him any more. However, a downside to having three distinct mother figures in his life is the sheer amount of well… mothering, that goes on. Izuku is helping them cook dinner while Shinsou and Rei (now almost nine years old) clean up the dining room.

Namika perks up at the conversation, “Shinsou is applying for the hero course at UA as well! Maybe we could drive you two to the school and you can drop off the forms together.”

“Er, well, actually I haven’t started filling out the forms yet.” Izuku admits.

Namika sighs and gives Izuku a look that promises a lecture on the importance of filling out paperwork in a timely manner, while Yumi protests, “The deadline is next week!”

Izuku shrugs, rinsing a head of cauliflower in the sink.

“I haven’t decided on gen ed or hero course yet.” He hasn't told anybody about his indecision, not even All Might (especially not All Might).

“Hero course?” Namika wonders, “I thought you wanted to be a detective.”

“Well, this guy I’ve sort of been training with really wants me to enter the hero course.”

“Izuku, you’re the one going to the school. You have to decide what you want.” Yumi advises as she liberates the cauliflower from Izuku’s grip and gives him some more veggies to wash.

...

The thing is, Izuku isn’t sure what he wants. As the exam date grows closer, Izuku finds himself questioning his decision. He wants to become a hero, but he’s not sure if he necessarily deserves to become a hero. Would he be letting Mr. Toshinori down if he doesn't at least try? He focuses all his energy into cleaning up the beach, splitting the rest of his time between homework, his job, and listing names in the Notebook. His mother and the Noborus are supportive of him, telling him that even if he decides he’s never becoming the hero he’ll still have their love. It’s not as comforting as it should be, because whenever Inko or Yumi or Namika give him their heartfelt support, a little voice in the back of his mind whispers that he doesn’t deserve it.

The morning of the exam comes and Izuku has miraculously managed to clean up the beach. His body is definitely showing the results of his intense daily workout, and he’s filled out a bit more, looking less lean and more compact. The previous night, he had tried on his vigilante costume and had been surprised to find it tight around his shoulders and biceps. He’ll have to get it refitted before he resumes his work on the streets.

It’s a beautiful morning, and the empty beach looks gorgeous in the golden light of the dawn- empty except for two lone figures.

“You did good! You really did it!” All Might, despite being in his heavily muscled, perpetually smiling form, is exuding pure shock as he surveys the flawless beach.

Izuku is still sweating from moving the final trash bags into the dump. He should be filled with excitement, or at least satisfaction from finally achieving his goal.

Yet he can’t help but think out loud, “It feels like I’m cheating.”

“This is the power you earned because of your own effort, young Midoriya. Now, the time has come for you to accept my power." All Might holds out a single blond hair. "Eat this!” 

As weird as this is (why a hair All Might? Why?) Izuku wants to accept the offer: this once-in-a-lifetime, never again, could-only-happen-in-an-anime offer. But he can’t, because it wouldn’t be fair.

All Might wants Izuku to become his successor, to become the next symbol of peace. Yet Izuku is already a symbol. The Heart Attack Killer is known across Japan as either a heartless villain or as a symbol of justice. If Izuku were to become the next symbol of peace, it would be a false peace, one built on lies. And were those lies to be uncovered and the symbol of peace was actually a villain, it would undoubtedly cause huge repercussions in the hero industry. This is all assuming that Izuku is even capable of becoming the next All Might.

“All Might, I really appreciate everything you’ve done for me…” Izuku swallows back bile and forces himself to stand up straight and look All Might in the eyes, “but I cannot accept your quirk!”

All Might doesn’t react. In fact, his expression doesn’t change at all.

“Um… All Might?” Izuku asks nervously.

Maybe he’s accidentally broken the man. Without warning, All Might coughs and deflates back into Toshinori, his clothes draping his skinny body like a tent.

“Young Midoriya, that is a cruel joke to play on the morning of the exam. You nearly gave me a heart attack!”

Izuku shudders at the unfortunate word choice, rubbing the back of his head nervously.

“It’s, uh- not- not a joke.”

“Was the hair too much?” To All Might’s credit, he isn’t angry, just very confused.

“All my life, I’ve wanted to become a hero. But I was born with a quirk that hurts- I mean- really hurts people.” Izuku has to pick his words carefully, because he can’t reveal himself completely but All Might deserves honesty from him, “You know Death Date is only part of my quirk, but I don’t really tell people about it because I’m scared. I don’t want them to see me as a villain. But All Might, you were the first ever person to tell me I could become a hero. You never demanded to know more about my quirk! You believed in me! So I’ve decided that I want to use my quirk- the one that you believed in- to become a hero!”

“Young Midoriya….” Is it just Izuku or is All Might tearing up a little?

“I’ve already decided to apply for general education at UA, but I will still try to join the hero course via the sports festival. Please consider somebody else to inherit your quirk, someone who can use it better than me. I apologize for wasting your time these last few months!” Izuku punctuates the words with a sharp bow.

He can’t believe he actually just turned down the offer of a lifetime, and from the number one hero too. Speaking of the pro hero, he looks rather resigned, but Izuku thinks that he may spot a glimmer of pride in the man’s gaze.

“To overcome your fear of your quirk and climb to the top using your own power… That’s the true spirit of the American Dream Plan!” The man goes muscled for a moment to give a cheesy thumbs-up before deflating again. “I’m glad I was able to inspire you to become a hero, Young Midoriya. I wouldn’t call these last months a waste at all.” All Might places a reassuring hand on Izuku’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry I let you down!” All Might’s understanding demeanor is tugging more on Izuku’s emotions than it ever would if the man had gotten angry or started yelling.

“You've never let me down, Young Midoriya." The gentle hand on his shoulder pulls Izuku into a hug, and the green haired boy would be lying if he said a couple of tears didn't escape his eyes.

Izuku's heart constricts in his chest. He shouldn't be crying about this, it was his own choice after all. It's better this way. A villain shouldn't be the one to inherit the quirk of the symbol of peace.

But why does Izuku feel so broken inside?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for the ultra late update and short chapter.
> 
> I moved across the country for school and when I got there the WiFi was broken. Luckily, I was able to get the internet to work. Hopefully once I settle in with classes I can continue my twice monthly schedule. Life is getting busy T^T
> 
> Also please excuse poor editing for the aforementioned reasons.

**Author's Note:**

> This is just an idea I had and couldn’t get out of my head! In case you didn’t realize, Izuku’s quirk is basically that he has the abilities of a death note (a.k.a. If he writes down the name of a person he knows in his journal they will die). If this receives any attention maybe I’ll write more, so please let me know what you thought. Thanks!


End file.
